If you consider yourself sinless, it would be best if you skip today’s reading before you commit the sin of wasting your time.
I want everyone else to consider two statements of Paul to the church in Rome:
1. All have sinned. There is no one righteous.
2. Our sins have separated us from God.
What is the basis of this belief? Why is sin our number one problem? Why is it so disruptive? Why would it cause such a breach in divine-human rapport? Why, God, have our sins separated us from You?
Our mission today is to answer these questions, and a brief look at ER wound protocol will perhaps help. When I suture a laceration, I follow a set pattern. First, I don sterile gloves that are free of bacteria and potential pathogens. Next, I anesthetize the wound with a local injection of sterile 1% lidocaine; then I clean the wound and surrounding skin with a sterile solution of sodium chloride and a sterile antibacterial soap. Then, with a sterile hemostat, I grasp a sterile needle attached to a sterile nylon thread and suture together the edges of the wound, occasionally removing blood with sterile gauze.
At all times during this repair, I must protect and maintain the sterile field around the wound. If I have to leave during suturing to handle another emergency, I put on new sterile gloves when I return. If I drop a hemostat or needle on the floor, I ignore it and ask for a sterile replacement. The mere presence of bacteria in that needle or instrument automatically makes it of no use to me. Its unsterile nature separates it from the procedure at hand.
What an appropriate parallel to the state of our relationship with God! He is holy—infinitely pure and righteous, without hint or speck of contamination. We (yes, all of us) are His contaminated instruments—sinful, dirty, and unrighteous. Just as filth on a hemostat separates it from a sterile tray, our sinfulness and ungodliness separate us from a holy and sinless God.
-If God Is "I AM", then Who Am I? (Day 20)
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