Before I spend a lot of time reacting and saying something like, “Now just a minute, Jesus—that doesn’t sound right!”—I’m prompted to face this question: How big is my guilt before God? The way I am presently processing these words of Jesus (Check out the counterpart of this passage in Matthew 23:35-36), I’m inclined to conclude that my own personal guilt is very BIG—bigger than I can even comprehend. Try to follow me through some thoughts as they are impacting me. I’m seeing that my guilt is bigger than my being cruel to a classmate in 3rd grade—bigger than stealing a bag of candy when I was 12—bigger than telling a blatant lie when I was 14, and so on. My guilt is bigger than my personal history of wrongdoing. The strong implication of Jesus’ words is that my guilt and responsibility is so huge as to include all the sins of all mankind from the beginning of man’s history till now—and beyond. How can that be? I am GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION. Whereas I am a member of the human race, and “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), then I stand condemned with the ALL for it ALL!
This, of course, is not a very popular perspective—and you could even find yourself chafing. But before we get all upset and defensive over how unfair this seems, let’s balance out the matter with trying to comprehend the matter from God’s big perspective—considering the size and scope of God’s antidote for my guilty condition. “For the wages of sin is death (BIG death), but the gift (BIG gift) of God (BIG God) is eternal life (BIG life) in Christ Jesus our Lord (BIG Savior)” (Romans 6:23). So God’s love gift is also BIG—bigger than I can comprehend. In fact it’s way BIGGER than my guilt! I’m staggering with these ideas. Please stagger with me. It occurs to me that God offers dramatic definition to the bigness of His grace against the bigness of my guilt in the scene of the cross. Don’t let this get by you. Now—please join me in rehearsing the first stanza of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin.”
Here’s the bottom line as I see it: If, for whatever reason, I do not personally subscribe to this amazing Gift of God, I must accept the consequences (wages) for SIN. It’s an ALL OR NOTHING deal. No one is partially saved—or partially lost. It’s either one or the other. So if I don’t embrace the gift, it’s not just that I AM guilty for it all, but I MAY AS WELL BE. Does that make sense?