The Rampart and Jesus
We often overlook the forgiveness that God has given to us. It can be especially true because we see things as though it is the norm, and this is what the world should look like. We fail to see that God has always been there and continually pulls us to reconciliation with Him through His sacrifice on the cross.
One of the most noteworthy stories about Jesus was in John 8:6. This is when He wrote something on the ground. This was done in defense of a woman taken in for adultery. This was done in order to show us that we are not better than others in the case that we all have fallen short of God’s goodness. In this case, Jesus acted as the guarantor and defense of the woman, in which Jesus took onto Himself the sin of the woman and the judgement thereof. Now, if in case the woman once again sinned? Who will take the hit or the blame? Wouldn’t that be Jesus as well? Now, knowing that God has given us Jesus and the forgiveness presented to us as the rampart on the cross? Do we still continue to sin against God, do we still continue to challenge even though we know we have fallen short of God’s presence?
This has happened in the past. We see this in two parts of scripture, namely Lamentations 2:8 and Nahum 3:8. Time and time again, our pride causes us to cast blame and continually point out the wrong and flaws of others rather than seeing how we ourselves can work towards God’s standard. Time and time again, God has taken to Himself our sins because, as Haggai 2:13-14 says, we are unclean. This is emphasized more when we justify our unclean parts by the unclean parts of others and even more so by justifying that we can never reach the perfection of who God is.
We then swim in the mire, seeing that this is just how things are and accepting that it can never be better than what it is. Now that we are used to our own muck, we then say that we do not need God anymore when all the while we owe everything to Him. And yet, through all of this, He remains patient with us and constantly waiting for us.