Rights You Deserve from God
© 2022 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)
I often hear folks say, “I demand my rights.” Most of us would like to think we deserve only good things. We also understand that murderers and robbers deserve to be caught and punished. But we’re not murderers or robbers are we?
How good are you? How good am I? Our answer to that question depends on the criteria we use to determine goodness. I feel like things that are good for me are “good,” and things that are bad for me are “bad.” Of course, things that are good for me may be bad for you. So, our definitions of good and evil may differ.
However, God has not appointed you or me to define good and evil. He has reserved that right to Himself. If our own definitions of good and evil differ from His, then we are wrong!
The fact is that we are all born sinners. Thus, unless something happens to change us from the inside out, we have all inherited evil, fallen natures which displease God. God revealed this to us through His apostle Paul.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)
One day a religious leader, who was a lawyer, asked Jesus a question:
“Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:35-37)
This answer from Jesus gets to the very heart of what’s good and what’s evil. If love for God is not my highest priority, then I fall short of His standard. Do you fall short too? This conclusion is reinforced by the following statement of Scripture
“If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” (1 Corinthians 16:22)
The word “Anathema” means “cursed”! It leaves mankind without any rights apart from God’s mercy. To provide this mercy, God the Son, Jesus Christ died as a sacrificial substitute to bear God’s punishment for sin.
Will you demand your rights, or will you ask God for mercy, and for power to love Him?
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