Are You on the List?

So, we've got this thing all figured out. After 1,980 years it's about time. After all, the bible is easy to understand and unequivocal on what constitutes grave sin. It says it right there in the bible: idolatry, drunkenness, sexual immorality and homosexuality. Those who practice any of those things will not inherit the kingdom of God. All settled.

Well, no. All that sounds pretty good except that those four things are never put all together as a concise list of disqualifications anywhere. Furthermore, exclusionary use of that short list in essence implies that, though you must never do any of those four things, all the other stuff isn't as "bad". Now, you might even get away with living out that contradiction until you run into Galatians 5:19 (also written by Paul, probably 20 years before Romans), which adds the following to the list of offenses for which the offender will not inherit the kingdom of God: sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions and envy. Oh, and as long as we're being literal without regard for the historical, cultural or biblical context, we'd have to add circumcision to the list (Gal 5:2).

We all do at least one of those things at least once per day, and probably many times per day. Most of us wrestle with several of them as part of our ingrained personality. In other words, that kind of behavior isn't the exception...it's the rule. We're angry more than we're forgiving. We're jealous more than we're trusting. We're envious more than we're generous. None is worse than the other. They're all disqualifying. The solution is that we go to God for forgiveness over and over and over and over, then start again every time. This is the nature of divine forgiveness even though it has an enabling effect in some cases. What's the alternative?

So, we're absolved by God's mercy. The thing about mercy is, it's not like kindness or generosity. By definition, mercy is only mercy if you're giving it to someone who doesn't deserve it. We are the beneficiaries of mercy...all of us, no matter what sin list you're reading from. There are no distinctions to be made; we are all equally screwed, and we are all justified (declared "not guilty" by God) on exactly the same basis: faith. Not "faith" with the hidden clause "as long as you don't do the stuff in Galatians 5", but faith alone.

Christ is our only hope. None of us gets to come to him and remain precisely as we are, but he will do the work in us. We don't do it for ourselves or for others. God can love us and judge us at the same time. We can't do the same.