Oct 19 - Matthew 5:29

Jesus said,

And if your right hand 
causes you to sin, 
cut it off and throw it away; 
it is better for you to lose 
one of your members 
than for your whole body 
to go into hell.
Matthew 5:29

Yesterday, I promised you a story.

Look back to yesterday's devotional

to more fully appreciate the context!

Question: Imagine you're walking along the edge of a cliff, and you trip and fall. Someone throws down a lifeline to save you. Does it matter whether you're attached to the top of the rope, the bottom of the rope, or just that you're attached?

 

The same is true with life. Sin trips us. We fall off the edge of a cliff. If Jesus doesn't throw us a lifeline -- which he did with his cross -- we'll crash and burn. Literally. Without Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice, scripture teaches repeatedly that our whole bodies will burn in the fires of hell. 

So here's the question: Does it matter where on Jesus' rope (called the cross) it is that we catch ahold of this lifeline? 

 

The answer is no. The drug addicted prostitute who reaches up from the pit and cries, "Jesus, save me," is just as saved as the Mother Theresa's and saints of the world. 

So the answer is no ... except when it's yes!

It actually does matter where we are -- positionally -- upon that rope. Not from God's perspective, of course. Grace is eternally grace, right?! 

But ... from our limited human perspective, it matters tremendously where we position our hearts along that lifeline. 

Every object has gravity. The bigger the object is, the more gravity it has. The massive sun has more gravity, for example, than our comparatively little earth. So why don't we float away from earth and get sucked up into the sun? Because we're closer to the earth. 

Jesus has more gravity than sin, hell, and death. But when we fall off the cliff -- and we all fall because we all sin -- and when we only allow ourselves to grab on near the ground, we find ourselves more drawn to the gravity of the world than the lift in Christ's light. 

And when we're hanging -- often intentionally compromised -- by a low-hanging thread, we're liable to let go, thinking that the ground below us looks solid. But what's below us is sinking sand. Death. Destruction. 

 

But when we're hanging higher -- closer to Christ -- we're more likely to climb higher. His "gravity" (his truth and light and power) will captivate us. 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who is proud to be

attached to Christ with anyone,

including drug addicts

and prostitutes