If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once preached a sermon on judgement, describing how terrifying it would be for us to stand before the judgment seat with all our sinful deeds fully made known. The more salacious things would certainly be of deep, deep embarrassment, but in the end the small peccadilloes might be the most revealing. What an utter shame it would be for our pettiness, betrayal, and sulking envy to be exposed. The full implication of such a moment of uncloaking would drive us all to despair. As the Psalmist says, "Who could stand?"
No one of course. Not one single person -- no matter how good we might think they are. They too would be seen to be carriers of the disease of sin just as Noah and his family were revealed to have it when they disembarked from the ark.
And this was just Bonhoeffer's point -- that in the end none of us will be able stand on our own righteousness, and the in the end the desire to insist on doing so is the ultimate act of rebellion against God's graceful way.
As Bonhoeffer said in the sermon, "The good is nothing more than that we ask for his grace and take hold of it. The evil is nothing other than fear and wanting to stand before God on one's own, wanting to be self-righteous."
Mercy is better than justice in my book. And when the day comes I am going to plea for it. That may put me in the same camp with a lot of other people known to be unrighteous sinners; but the alternative will be to be in a camp with the self-righteous and that's one place which for a variety of reasons I just don't think I'd be able to stand.
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