Among the many epithets
frequently thrown at Christians, like "bigot',
"prejudiced", etc, is this one: Self
Righteous.. Let us examine that.
Christians are those who have come to understand
that we, as human
beings are incapable of meeting GOD's
standard of perfection.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, but are justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that
came by Christ Jesus."
- Romans 3:23-4
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus, our lord." - Romans
6:23
So, we have "thrown ourselves on the mercy of the
court" by taking
JESUS CHRIST as our "lawyer" to defend us
when we finally leave
this life and meet our maker. The bible tells
us in Romans 8:34:
"Jesus Christ . . . . is at the right hand of
God, and is interceding for us".
If you ask most of those who call Christians
"Self Righteous" about their
own relationship to God, most will answer something
like this: "I am a
good person and I am sure that when I face God,
he will recognize that
and give me a pass". That is, one of the few
who even accept the
concept of GOD.
So Who is "Self Righteous"?
Ego is the worst enemy of human beings.
It was "wanting to be like GOD"
that was the original sin of humans. Ego
is the fire that consumed Hitler.
Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and most of the
despots of history, along
with many of the politicians of our day.
Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to
intellectual ego. You can
insult men in many ways without much reaction
- - but call them stupid or
moronic and they are ready to fight.
It is hard for egotistic man to accept that there
is an intellect far far superior
to his : The
Almighty GOD. Men worship God's creation.
Some
chain themselves to trees
to prevent them from being cut down - then go
home to their house made
of wood. The prophet Isaiah had something to
say about them:
Isaiah
44:16-17 - "Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it
he prepares
his
meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself
. . . .
From
the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships
He
prays to it and says, 'Save me;you are my god."
The
egotistic man can worship a dumb and blind piece of wood because
it is not threat
to him - it has no intelligence to challenge him. But, the idea
of a God with greater intelligence
than he. . . . . that he cannot countenance.
That's why we have people
chaining themselves to a tree to prevent it being
cut down and used to make
some useful object - - who then go home to a
house made of wood, sit
down on a wooden chair and stoke their fire of wood.
Some things just don't
change. . . . . . .JMC