Friday 4/1/13

James 2:10-11 ESV

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

God is holy, so all those who want to stand before Him must be pure and blameless, never transgress any moral law of His. Just failing one point, we already become sinner who cannot live with Him forever in heaven. This includes the forbidding laws such as "do not lie", 'do not murder", "do not angry" to the requiring laws such as "love the Lord your God with all your hear, mind, and soul", to "love your neighbors as yourself". And none of us can keep consistently, i.e. live forever without sin from the heart. At best we can keep some grossly visible laws (like "do not murder"). More often, we tone down the requirement, mark some visible signs and keep them like the Pharisees kept their Sabbath, while living the meaty and spiritual part undone. Keeping the visible part makes us quite hypocrisy, do it not from the heart but mainly for show.

So by the laws no one can be justified before God. We just sin more or less, but the results are all the same: We cannot live forever with Him in heaven. Only seeking God's forgiveness in Christ that we are justified and can come to God and stay in His presence forever.