*****************
Balancing our Books
David
Sellnow
All of us have a natural tendency to be bookkeepers. We think like accountants, keeping track of
things. We keep track of every sort of
statistic for our sports teams. We use
pedometers to log how many steps a day we are walking. We monitor how many likes we have on Facebook
or how many followers we have on Twitter.
You see the bookkeeping tendency already at a young age in
children. They like to keep track of the
chores they have accomplished, get check marks on their chore chart or even
better, little stickers or stars. Little
bookkeepers like to see their accounts growing.
I see the tendency in college students. If you’re a college student, you may count up
every point you can get on every assignment that you’re assigned. And if an assignment is graded and the
professor didn’t give you as many points as you wanted, you go up after class
and talk to him and try to argue for more points. Or you email the prof and ask, “Did you dock me
for such and such? Because I think I did
such and such, or your instructions didn’t specifically tell me I had to do
such and such.” Or maybe you don’t have
the nerve to complain to your professors, but you gripe among your friends
about the grades you get. “His grading
is so unfair. I deserve more
points.” Students are eager bookkeepers,
wanting a gradebook full of points.
Benjamin Franklin was a bookkeeper. He kept books to chart his own good deeds
each day.
In 1726, at the age of 20,
Ben Franklin set this goal for himself:
“I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral
perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time.”
In order to accomplish his
goal, Franklin developed and committed himself to a personal improvement
program that consisted of living 13 virtues, things like industriousness and temperance
and sincerity and moderation.
In order to keep track of
his adherence to his listed virtues, Franklin carried around a small book of 13
charts. The charts consisted of a column for each day of the week and 13 rows
marked with the first letter of his 13 virtues. Franklin evaluated himself at
the end of each day. He placed a dot next to each virtue each had
violated. His goal was to minimize the number of marks, thus indicating a
“clean” life free of bad marks in his book.
Franklin admitted he never
got the book completely clean. (He liked
beer too much, and flirting with women, and other foibles.) But he said, “Tho’ I never arrived at the
perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, … yet I was, by the endeavour,
a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been.”
[Information taken from ArtOfManliness.com.]
I don’t know how happy Ben Franklin was at the end of
life when it was time for his final accounting before the Lord of all
virtues. But it seems he didn’t properly
understand how the Lord keeps books in eternity. And while Ben Franklin was more meticulous
than most about his bookkeeping, I’d say the way he thought about the
bookkeeping process of his life is the way too many people think of the books
of their lives. And that’s a problem.
The Bible section for today is a vision from Revelation that talks about books. It’s also the section of the Bible that the website Listverse.com, which bills itself as “the original top 10 site” on the web, lists as the #1 Most Horrifying Moment in the Bible.
This is Revelation 20:11-15 ...
I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on
it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no
place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing
before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which
is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had
done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in
it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each
person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and
Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the
second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of
life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Being thrown into the lake of fire is indeed a horrifying
thought. But let’s talk about those
books. What are those books? What’s in those books? Everyone – whether great or small – has a
book. When Judgment Day comes, “the dead
are judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” Does that scare you? Have you done enough for your account book to
be in passable condition?
Well, actually, you know what the Bible says about how
much you have to do. You have to have a
perfect book, a book that records flawless keeping of all God’s laws,
impeccable and constant virtues. You can
be as diligent as Ben Franklin and still your book comes up short of what it
needs to be. So how can anyone be
saved? Those who are saved are those
whose names are found written in the book of life. If your name is in the book of life, the lake
of fire poses no threat to you. Don’t be
afraid, Jesus saves you.
You do have an account book with God in heaven. Think of it as a book that has two
columns. One column is for credits to
your account of virtue – all the good deeds you are expected to do in keeping
with God’s commandments. The other
column records your debits or sins – every time you have violated God’s
commandments. When the books are opened
in heaven, you need a book that has a completely clean record in the sin column
– not a single sin standing against your name … and a completely full record in
the righteousness column – that every opportunity you ever have in life to do
the right thing, do a good deed, fulfill a commandment of God, you have done
so.
Does anyone have a book like that? One person does. Only one person. One person who stood in our place and lived
the life we ought to live, constantly and consistently obeying the Father’s
will. One person who was “tempted in
every way just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). One person has a
record book with a completely clean, unstained column in regard to sin, not a
single sin to list. One person has a
record book with a completely perfect, full account of good deeds in the column
marked for righteousness. Jesus Christ
is the one person with a perfect book. But
when we become connected to Jesus, when the Spirit of God, through the Word of
God, brings us to trust in Jesus by faith, our names are written in the book of
life. And for those whose names are
written in the book of life, the book of Jesus’ life is credited to us also as
the book of our lives – even though we didn’t do it, even though we didn’t
deserve it, even though we haven’t lived it.
We are granted all the credit of Jesus—all the goodness and
righteousness of his life. We are
forgiven of all the sins we have committed, on account of all that Jesus
suffered in our place—even death on the cross under God’s horrible
judgment. As one of Christ’s apostles
summed it up for us: “God made him who
had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
And so when our books are opened, they reveal these sorts of
things: Jesus will say to us, “I was
hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was
in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:35,36). We will wonder when we did all those
things. But all that Jesus did will be
already credited on our account. And on
top of that, Jesus will say to those whose names are written in the book of
life, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of
mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
So don’t fear the lake of fire. And don’t fear that when your book is opened
on Judgment Day, you won’t have enough in it. You won’t need to beg the Father
in heaven to give you more points because you didn’t fulfill his assignments
well enough. You won’t be arguing that
you didn’t understand his expectations and can he please just give you another
chance. Believing in Jesus Christ, your
name is written in the book of life.
Believing in Jesus Christ, the book of your life that God opens on
judgment day will show what Jesus has done for you and what you have done in
Jesus. And all will be well.
Don’t be afraid.
Jesus saves you.
No comments:
Post a Comment