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Why The Universal Justice/Righteousness Scale for Mankind Changed After Christ

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Think about a competition in the world on the scale of the Super Bowl, where everyone tries to have the brightest light. Context: Throughout the history of mankind, it has been nighttime 24 hours a day. Therefore, it’s more than a competition; it’s about finding your way, perhaps even survival, as you seek the man with the brightest light. Some men carry candles, and those with the brightest candles others follow. Still others come up with other ways to carry an even brighter light than that of a candle, and those seeking light follow them. These are the best of mankind, the ones others follow, the ones with the brightest light. Some were frauds, but some were truly great.

            Then one day, an amazing and unprecedented thing happens – the sun rises on the earth for the first time. Yet those who we thought were the best of men continue carrying their lights – in broad daylight. Those with the brightest light call on others to follow them, as if the sun had not risen. You have been following one of those men with a very bright light, a light which is now barely visible. Yet he calls you to continue following him. You look around and see things you’ve never seen before, and you now have the light to get around without the light of the man you’ve been following, a man you thought was a great man. What do you think of him now that he demands you continue to follow his light in broad daylight as if the sun had never risen? His light is so tarnished as to eclipse all of its former brilliance. You wonder what you saw in him that caused you to follow him. You don’t even consider continuing your former life. You would have to shut your eyes to the sun and pretend it didn’t exist to continue to follow that man. His judgment seems worse than imperfect; it is fatally corrupted in your sight.

New scenario: The greatest high school football player of all time is recruited to play with the University of Alabama under Coach Nick Saban. This high school player is the utter best in any category ever conceived for judging football players. He is stellar in his ability. He shows up for his first practice, and when told what to do in practice, he says, “I don’t practice with these guys; I have my own routine that I use, and it’s always worked for me.” The assistant coach says, “But this is how Coach Saban wants things done when you play on his team.” I don’t need Coach Saban; I’m the best there ever was.” How far do you think he’ll get with that attitude? How many games will he win for Alabama? He’s not long for the team, and he never even got a chance to show what he can do. His pride in his ability is undone by his arrogant denial of authority in his life.

Third scenario: You walk across a street reading something on your cellphone, and a fellow jumps out and pushes you off the street just as a Mac truck comes through, running that man down, while you continue walking on your way, safe and sound without a scratch. While crowds of people surround the dead man who saved your life, you continue on, reading your phone. A man runs up to you to say, “Didn’t you see what that man did for you?!” You respond: “No, I didn’t notice.” “He saved your life! Didn’t you know a Mac truck almost ran you down?!” “I wouldn’t know.” “Aren’t you at least grateful for what he did, now that I’ve told you what happened?!” “Not really, I didn’t even know I was in danger.”

Proverbs 11:1 & 3 state: “A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight” & “The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.” Integrity and obedience to a just law, like the law of Moses, is critical to good living, the blessing of the Lord. But what if an excellent life was mere surface, a superficial show for man? What if the real person remained unseen beneath? What if the light of that person were exposed by the sun, and he kept walking as if the sun didn’t exist? What if the best of all refused to practice according to the Coach of Coaches? What if in all your study and commitment to what’s right, you walked out of a danger you didn’t even know faced you and refused to admit you owed your life and soul to someone else?

It doesn’t matter how good you are. It doesn’t matter whether you think someone is a great righteous leader or has a great light to follow. Even if you follow the greatest law of all, that of Moses and issued on Mount Sinai, Christ came like the sun in his brilliant righteousness, in his total authority over all things, in his saving, loving grace in giving His life for doomed sinners. In the same way as those three scenarios, Christ’s coming has changed everything. His light has out-shown all the lives that have ever been lived. Even the best leaders of the Jewish people, who were committed to the perfect law of God and to whom everyone looked for guidance and light by which to live, when faced with the brightness of the Christ should have been like John the Baptist and said, “He must increase; I must decrease,” and should have turned from their own righteousness and light to that of the infinite brightness of the life of the Son. To do otherwise, to continue in their own light, would have demonstrated a failure of judgment, an imbalance so great as to undo, to delete, to blank all their previous righteousness. And such is what happened to those who refused to admit the Sun had risen. It would be like seeking to follow a candle in broad daylight.

To deny the authority of the Coach of all Coaches and claim you’re too good to submit to his guidance, to practice your talents with the team he chose and in the way he ordered would be the height of folly, a demonstration of a false balance, a perverseness in judgment; it would not show how great a player you are. To ignore the danger from which someone else saved you and pretend as if the danger didn’t exist does not demonstrate strength, independence, and good judgment; it demonstrates ingratitude on a massive scale. No matter how great a person you had been until that time, it would wipe it out as petty, selfish, and unbalanced in comparison to the ingratitude and denial of reality your judgment exercised that day for all to see.

You won’t go to hell simply for a sexual indiscretion, a failure to keep your integrity 24/7, even for an inability to judge everything perfectly according to God’s law in life as you should. You’ll go to hell for denying the sun is up, for a complete failure to submit to the proper authority, and for the most detestable ingratitude imaginable.