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The pro-life movement is ultimately about extending the protection of the law to unborn babies; those of all faiths, or none, contribute meaningfully to that humanitarian cause. But for Christians, our pro-life witness must be subsumed into Our Lord’s healing work in bringing about the salvation of the world.
Jesus teaches that we will miss salvation if in our righteousness we fail to cultivate the habit of forgiveness. Consider his instruction: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus tells stories in which the Pharisees are exposed as hypocrites, but this is not one of them. Here, he builds on the reputation of the Pharisees for being diligently obedient to God’s law, yet observes that Pharisaic levels of righteousness will not save us.
The sinfulness in our hearts—the anger, the lust, the dishonesty—goes deeper than we ourselves can uproot, or sometimes even detect. Instead of Pharisaic righteousness, Jesus prescribes forgiveness. What we don’t give the Lord in obedience, we may yet give him by entering into the economy of forgiveness: receiving his extravagant mercy and then sharing it extravagantly with others.
Charles Williams, a member of the Inklings, an Oxford literary group associated with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, wrote a “theological thriller” about a man who was oppressed and badly hurt by his fellow countrymen. As his persecutors face Judgment Day, the man demands of God that they be punished, insisting that he has the right to see them face the consequences of their sin! God agrees, and proceeds to send those who hurt the man into Purgatory, where they suffer punishment for untold thousands of years.
But from the perspective of eternity, all temporal things come to an end: Even ten times ten thousand years is but the blink of an eye before the eternal God. In Williams’ story, when the temporal punishment of the wicked men comes to an end, Divine Judgment approaches the man himself. Here we get the first hints of Hell, the threat of truly eternal punishment, as if God were saying, “Okay, now it’s your turn, you who demanded that everything owed you be paid. You demanded payment for a finite debt of a few decades; how will you pay the infinite debt you owe your maker?” Hence the title of the novel, Descent into Hell.
Continued below.
humanlifereview.com
Jesus teaches that we will miss salvation if in our righteousness we fail to cultivate the habit of forgiveness. Consider his instruction: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus tells stories in which the Pharisees are exposed as hypocrites, but this is not one of them. Here, he builds on the reputation of the Pharisees for being diligently obedient to God’s law, yet observes that Pharisaic levels of righteousness will not save us.
The sinfulness in our hearts—the anger, the lust, the dishonesty—goes deeper than we ourselves can uproot, or sometimes even detect. Instead of Pharisaic righteousness, Jesus prescribes forgiveness. What we don’t give the Lord in obedience, we may yet give him by entering into the economy of forgiveness: receiving his extravagant mercy and then sharing it extravagantly with others.
Charles Williams, a member of the Inklings, an Oxford literary group associated with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, wrote a “theological thriller” about a man who was oppressed and badly hurt by his fellow countrymen. As his persecutors face Judgment Day, the man demands of God that they be punished, insisting that he has the right to see them face the consequences of their sin! God agrees, and proceeds to send those who hurt the man into Purgatory, where they suffer punishment for untold thousands of years.
But from the perspective of eternity, all temporal things come to an end: Even ten times ten thousand years is but the blink of an eye before the eternal God. In Williams’ story, when the temporal punishment of the wicked men comes to an end, Divine Judgment approaches the man himself. Here we get the first hints of Hell, the threat of truly eternal punishment, as if God were saying, “Okay, now it’s your turn, you who demanded that everything owed you be paid. You demanded payment for a finite debt of a few decades; how will you pay the infinite debt you owe your maker?” Hence the title of the novel, Descent into Hell.
Continued below.
The Path to Salvation - The Human Life Review
If others hold something against you, ask their forgiveness, and do as much as you can to repair the damage you’ve caused.
humanlifereview.com
