Friday, July 22, 2022

 

Friday, July 22, 2022


Psalm 51

Amos 9:1-6

Romans 3:9-20

(Feast Day: Mary Magdalene)


Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.


Folk wisdom has it that for us to know where we are going, we need to know where we have come from. Sometimes we also need to be reminded about where we are.


Today's readings, if they existed in a vacuum, would be the most terrifyingly miserable thing we could ever come across. It holds two positions that we must always keep in mind: firstly, that we have an infinitely powerful and holy God, and secondly, that we as His creatures come nowhere even close to that standard of perfection. This makes many Christians uncomfortable. We want to run away from today's message and jump straight into tomorrow's. Yes, tomorrow Paul will turn our frowns upside down with the glorious message of how God fixed our broken relationship with Him. But tomorrow's message of salvation is lessened without today's lesson of depravity. God's beauty is magnified by our ugliness.


A Biblical “fear” of God is twofold: yes, a fear that we deserve punishment for breaking the universal moral code that God spoke to the Jews and wrote in the hearts of the Gentiles. But there is a second aspect: that we live in awe of God's immense majesty. The first leads to repentance; the second leads to worship. As the Psalmist demonstrates, the first moves into the second. And in worshipping God, we have all the truths of heaven and earth revealed to us.




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