Broken

Yesterday in community group we covered James 2:8-13.  This passage gets to one of the most difficult issues in Christianity: obedience to the Law and the old covenant in light of the new covenant expounded by Jesus.  Verses 9 and 10 say, "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it."  This verse is what I have dwelt on for a while.  To understand that the entire law is broken with any one offense.  I have heard for years that all sin is equal in God's eyes, but that phrase seems to have become cliche, at least for me.

Though I don't know if we can ever fully understand the weight of our sin, I have been imbued with a deeper understanding, thanks to Ezekiel 16.  This is one of the most vivid and horrifying passages I have read in the Bible, and it has profoundly changed my view of sin.  The chapter begins with God describing what he has done for Jerusalem.  When she (Jerusalem) was born, no one wanted her.  She was abandoned and alone, but God took her and cared for her. When she grew up she was clothed and cared for by God (Ezekiel 16:13).

Jerusalem, however, turned from God, and after experiencing his perfect love, Jerusalem whored herself out to idols (Ezekiel 16:15).  Then God says, "How lovesick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute... yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.  Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!" (Ezekiel 16:30-32).  This is sin.  To be the precious, chosen bride of God, and to whore ourselves out to the idols of this world.  I am now able to understand better, but not fully, what my sin is. 

This passage drives me straight to God.  My flesh is capable of horrible, atrocious things, simply because it has already spat in the face of the Almighty, Omnipotent, Creator of the universe.  Now, I am broken, and I tremble with fear at what my flesh can do.  However, God is with me, and ONLY through him may my flesh be destroyed and my soul restored.  Now I don't just feel that I need God, but that I must cling to him with all the strength that I have.  He is all that can save me from myself, and I am nothing without him.

The final glorious step is Christ's sacrifice and resurrection.  After beginning to understand how broken I am, I am then able to better understand his sacrifice.  That flesh that is so heinous was destroyed, and I have new life.  In fact, I no longer live, but Christ lives THROUGH me (Galatians 2:20).  This is why I praise the Lord that he has revealed my brokenness, especially through Ezekiel 16, because when I better understand the profound evil of reviling the Alpha and Omega, then I am able to better understand the complete and perfect grace that I have received.  Now I must desperately cling to Christ, and follow him with reckless abandon, for that is where life is found.

"Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me!  Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!" - Psalm 38:21-22