WORLDLY HOPELESSNESS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:10

Perhaps, there is no more convicting verse in all of scripture. And it partners nicely with today’s verse from Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7:

Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. (v20)

No one is righteous, not one person. No one can say they have been perfectly right in their life. No one can say they have not sinned.

Now, I didn’t say that people don’t act as if they have never done anything wrong in life. Maybe you have met a few people like this, so prideful that they cannot admit they are in error even when it’s obvious they are. The scriptures have this to say about these kinds of people:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8

In other words, live in denial that you have sinned and you are a liar, a liar before God and a liar unto yourself.

The truth of the matter, the truth of life in general for us, is that we all are sinners and have fallen way short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We all have failed miserably and deserve nothing but God’s condemnation and wrath.  

This is the state we find ourselves in, a state of worldly hopelessness.

Thanks be to God that He, out of His rich mercy and love, made a way for us to escape the hopelessness we find ourselves in as sinners. For He provided all of us an intercessor, someone who has already paid the sin penalty we deserved, someone who could purify us from our unrighteousness. That someone is named Jesus.

Without an intercessor, someone to stand before God and facilitate our pardon, we are all doomed to extinction, without hope of being saved, without opportunity to live beyond the worldly lives we have now. Worldly hopelessness is born out of the fact that no one or nothing in the world can save us from our sins.  

Only Jesus can.

So how do we find our way to forgiveness of sins and the needed cleansing from our transgressions? When we return to 1 John, we find the answer from the word of the Lord:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

The steps are simple.

1. Confess our sins, admitting to God where we have went astray, where we have been disobedient, where we have violated His will and way.

2. We need to walk in the light in all we do and the only way we’ll do that is to take God by the hand and allow Him to lead us through every day He grants us. He is always in the light because He is light (1 John 1:5) and when we walk alongside Him, the path to righteousness is illuminated. None of us can find this path on our own for apart from God, we walk in darkness and end up on the wide path of destruction, a path paved in sin, a path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

When we walk in the light with God, we have fellowship with others, rejoicing and reveling with joy in the life God has granted, not just today but forever through His Son Jesus who has purified us from all sin through His blood.

Friends, this devotion today hits at the core of the Gospel.

Without Jesus, we are in a state of worldly hopelessness, destined for damnation and the fullest extent of God’s judgment, a place on one should ever want to be.

With Jesus, we are set free from the guilty verdict and death penalty that sin brings for God’s word is clear:

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

No condemnation. No hopelessness. Just peace and comfort and joy from the assurance that God saved us through His Son Jesus out of the deep love He has for us (John 3:16).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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