God Demands Perfection

God is perfect, so you must also be perfect. That's clear from the Ten Commandments.

The Bible says that if you break just one law, you are found guilty of breaking the entire Law. When Jesus walked on the earth, he took it one step further.

If you merely look at a woman to lust after her, He said, you have already commited adultery in your heart. If you hate your brother in your heart, you have already commited murder.

Jesus wanted us to know that we are not to bring God's Law down to a human level -- of merely conforming to an outward form, rather, we are to look at the unbending perfection of God's Law.

Jesus wants us to realize that God's Law is not just incredibly difficult to keep.

It is absolutely impossible to keep.

So why then did he not accuse the woman caught in adultery? So why then did he freely forgive prostitutes?

That's because He came to take the punishment for all of mankind.

He didn't come to condemn the world. He came to save it. He came to save us. He came to love us -- even when we couldn't be good, holy or righteous. In fact we were just the opposite.

God's perfect Law had been transgressed by man and justice demanded perfect retribution. But only a perfect sacrifice could satisfy the perfect requirement of Heaven's judicial system.

That perfect sacrifice was Jesus.

The spotless, sinless Son of God, died on the cross as the Son of Man -- in our place -- so that heaven's demand for justice might be satisfied -- once and for all.

When Jesus wrote the Ten Commandments on the sand, in front of the mob that had gathered to stone the woman caught in adultery, He knew that He would pay the penalty for man breaking every single one of those commandments.

Then he said to the crowd,'Him who is without sin, cast the first stone'. The mob dispersed, ashamed.

But He who could have cast a stone himself, said, 'Woman, where are your accusers?' He than said,'Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more'.

The perfect sinless Son of God is the only sacrifice that is able to meet Heaven's demands for justice.

And He fully paid for our sins on the cross!

You'll never be able to be good enough in your own efforts. Neither has anyone else throughout history. Realize that and you'll find the rest in Jesus that you've been seeking after. He is your Righteousness.