All or Nothing

So today I read a few revealing passages. First, in Proverbs this chapter and the surrounding ones are about contrasts between righteousness and wickedness. It struck me today that this is an "All or nothing" matter. One cannot be only partially righteous, just as we cannot say that Jesus was a good teacher and reject His claim to be the Son of God, as this would make Him a liar and no good teacher at all. We must either be rigtheous, declared thus by the blood of Christ, or wicked, left unchanged in our own sins. In Revelation we are told that the lukewarm will be spewed out of God's mouth; we are to be hot or cold.

The second point is in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. Now I remember memorizing 11:6 in my high school youth group, but until reading it in combination with this section of Proverbs today, I had never made the connection. Our faith is by what we are made righteous (Read Romans), and without faith, we are unable to please God. What is this faith? Well, it is not simply belief in a god. It is a sold-out state of life that consumes all of our being. If we have faith in Christ who died to set us free from sin, our lives should shine with the righteousness that has been imputed on us by the Father. This is the faith which pleases the Father, and this is the faith that will walk on water, call forth mountains, heal the broken and destitute, and carry us through in our dry times on this earth.

We have to be sold out; our lives should be all, totally given to God, or nothing, completely against His plan. He has a plan that is so much more rewarding than we could even imagine. Let's live today completely for His glory!