βBehold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive meβ
Heaven has an entrance feeβand, friend, you CANNOT pay it!
Our flesh loves to perform. You would think that 10 rules would get someone discouraged, but no! If so much as one rule is kept 90 percent of the time, or all are kept 10 percent of the time, there is boasting. βNo, I did not keep it perfectly, but βI did the best I could!β I will try even harder next time!β A performance-based acceptance system, unfortunately for sinners, is an βall-or-nothingβ procedure. Even though a sentence may be 99 percent true, one wrong word renders the whole statement false. Likewise, one failure nullifies the βperformanceβ to become (something quite easy to guess)ββnon-performance!!β
King David, in todayβs Scripture, is confessing to God. David has recently become a coveter, an adulterer, a liar, a conspirer, and a murderer: βHave mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgestβ (Psalm 51:1-4).
Todayβs Scripture follows: βBehold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.β Just yesterday, a woman told me that she believed a man went to Heaven because he had given so much money to his church. Like so many, she fails to see the truths from the pen of King David. David knew his problem was sin: he was born a sinner! No matter his βgoodβ works, his sin nature would remain.
Having received a complete revelation from God, we see what David could not. Jesus Christ died on Calvary to be the βpropitiationββthe fully-satisfying paymentβfor our sins (Romans 3:25). Friend, you place before God something other than faith in Jesus Christ as sufficient payment for your sins, and you will be profoundly disappointed when you realize your βmethod of paymentβ is permanently denied! source
