Breaking the Scale
By Anthony Lucarini
There is a concept that we’re all familiar with and understand and even expect: When we do good, we get good. When we do bad, we get bad.
We all have been raised on it, and we teach it to our kids. For example:
If you eat your vegetables, then you get dessert.
If you get good grades, you get TV privileges.
When you lie, you get timeout.
When you disobey, you go sit in the corner.
For some of us, we’ve used this same concept to shape our view of God, and how we approach Him. You may think of it like a scale. You may feel that when your life is weighing heavier on the “good” side, you have the right to go before God. But, when it’s leaning in the other direction, you may be ashamed to approach Him.
You don’t have to worry, though, because your approach into the presence of God has nothing to do with your works, but everything to do with Jesus.
Read Hebrews 4:14-16. This passage says that Jesus is our great High Priest, and He has taken our sin and His righteousness and made this Great Exchange. Now, when God sees us, He no longer sees our brokenness and sin, but rather He sees Jesus’ righteousness. The word righteousness means we are right with God!
Because of Jesus, we have access to the Father, and we can approach Him confidently just like it says in verse 16: “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
You have a Heavenly Father who is saying, “Come here.” He wants time with you. He wants you to enjoy His presence. He wants you to taste and see that He is good. And, you can rest in knowing that:
It’s not about the great things you may have done this week.
It’s not about your shortcomings.
It’s not about the number of times you lost your cool in front of your kids this week.
It’s not about the number of pages of Scripture that you did or didn’t read this week.
It’s about the fact that God loves you and wants you to draw near to Him and rest in His presence! And when you draw near to Him, His Word says that you will:
Receive mercy, which means not getting what you deserve.
Find grace, which means getting what you don’t deserve.
Because of God’s mercy and grace, you can go to Him for all of your needs:
Your physical needs
Your financial needs
Your emotional needs
Your massive needs
And, even your tiny needs
You don’t have to beat yourself up anymore for “not being good enough.” You don’t have to worry about what you’ve done or haven’t done this week. You don’t have to play the religious game of your good deeds outweighing your bad deeds. You don’t have to crucify yourself every day for your mistakes. Why? Because Jesus already has, and His sacrifice was ENOUGH. The scale has been broken.
Anthony Lucarini is student pastor at LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, S.C.
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