Batting 1,000

Rev. Robert D. Shofner,Jr.

http://www.stjohnsboonville.com/

“Grading on the curve” is a familiar term to any student. The teacher takes all the scores from the test and lists them from the highest to the lowest. Then he or she plots a curve that results with some students falling into the “A” category, others in “B”, most in the “C” range, and the lowest rounding out the “D’s” and F’s.”
So, our question for today is: “Does God ever grade on the curve?”
A lot of people act like they believe so. They say things like … “Well, I’m not half so bad as what’s his name over there!” “I live a pretty good life … I never cheat or steal … I don’t even kick my dog.” They sincerely believe, “Surely God, in His benevolence and kindness, will give a passing grade and heavenly diploma to people who ‘do their best.’” Right?
Paul writes:
“But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.” (Romans 1:18-23)
Skipping down to verse 28:
“Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care — worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!” (Romans 1:28-32)
Whoa! What a degrading view of humanity. What a description of all those reprobates who have deliberately chosen to push away God’s truth! But we all know this world has its share of atheists and agnostics, and there are just as many pagans wearing business suits as loin clothes. But Paul doesn’t leave any of these bad guys with an excuse. Paul plainly states that people can know their Creator. Humankind can see all around them in creation the handiwork of God. But instead of acknowledging God, worshipping Him and thanking Him, they turn from God to themselves. They think up silly ideas of what God is like to suit themselves. They turn from the light and embrace the dark shadows.
Verses 24 through 31 gives us a list of their sins. Sounds pretty much like today, doesn’t it? It’s a pretty accurate description. People have rebelled against God and this is the result. Their sin corrupts everything they touch. They see no need to turn to God. What right does God have to their lives anyway? They will do what they please … be their own boss!
And God says in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” In the more accurate translations, it says, “And God gave them up.” At first glance, that may sound like God is mad … and just turns His back on them. But the original Greek conveys a sense of extreme sadness on God’s part. He does give them up, but it breaks His heart to do so.
And notice the progression of their sin. “Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:32)
Even though they know of God’s death penalty for all these crimes, they go right ahead and do them anyway … and even get others to join in on the fun. They have run so far from God they no longer see or understand the consequences of their actions. They are thus proving the truth of that old Fortune Cookie saying, “Commit a sin more than once and it seems no longer a sin.”
“Well … Thank God I’m not like that! Those kind of people definitely need the Gospel, but I fail to see what all this has to do with me!”
Paul would warn us against that kind of self-righteous thought.
“Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn't so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you've done.
“You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. You're not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it's going to blaze hot and high, God's fiery and righteous judgment. Make no mistake: In the end you get what's coming to you — Real Life for those who work on God's side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!
“If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you're from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won't give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.
“If you sin without knowing what you're doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you're doing, that's a different story entirely. Merely hearing God's law is a waste of your time if you don't do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.
“When outsiders who have never heard of God's law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God's law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God's yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God's yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.” (Romans 2:1-16)
Do we think Paul is being fair? How can he say we do the same things as those obvious sinners when we really try to live right? But the point is … though we may see a sin in someone else, we often fail to see the same sin in ourselves. We quickly point to someone’s hatred, but ignore, or downplay, our own envy. We get bored hearing the guy at the shop bragging all the time, but we don’t recognize the selfish pride within ourselves.
Paul turned his attention to the good, moral people who won’t accept the meaning behind the Gospel. He tells us that moral people keep on depending on their own goodness and fail to really look into their own hearts. They firmly believe that God does grade on a curve. They think only of how “nice” they are, and don’t really believe God’s clear Word of warning. They keep judging other people and remain blind to their own faults.
Reading between the lines, we can imagine Paul thinking about himself. Remember that before he had his life-changing experience with Christ, Paul was a highly ethical and religious person who looked down his nose at all the bad people in the world. But when he met Christ, Paul began to see himself as he really was … he realized he was no longer blameless … he realized, fully, that he was a sinner in need of grace.
That realization can only truly happen when we confront the living God. And that’s tough to take. Actually … it’s frightening. To stand before a totally perfect and powerful God … and realize that we are nothing but sinful filth in His righteous eyes. When Isaiah beheld his vision of God, all he could cry was “Woe is me! I am doomed!” And I can guarantee we’d cry the same.
Listen, as long as we insist on comparing ourselves to other people, we think we’re pretty good. I mean, I’m better than that guy over there … and if God grades on a curve, if he makes it, I’m good as gold! But when we actually come into the presence of God’s perfection … woe is me! Because that’s a whole new ballgame!
Our secret lives are laid open before God. Every deed, every word, every thought. Everything! We don’t want anyone to know those dirty little secrets. We try to keep up our front. But no matter how smug we may get in thinking we’re fooling everyone else, we’re not fooling God. God knows everything. Nothing is hidden from His sight.
Paul points out: “But if you sin knowing full well what you're doing, that's a different story entirely.” That means when we do something wrong and we know it’s wrong, but we do it anyway, we will suffer the consequences … because God doesn’t grade on the curve!
So these words of judgment and punishment are written to convict everyone of his or her need for Christ, because all of us sin … all of us fall far short of God’s perfect standard. We all need Jesus … the pagan bad guy and the moral good guy. Even religious guys. In fact, Paul blasts the most religious people of all, the Jews. And he should know … he was once a super religious Jew himself, and here is what he says about them.
“If you're brought up Jewish (or Protestant, or Roman Catholic, or whatever), don't assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you're an insider to God's revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God's revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I'm quite serious. While preaching "Don't steal!" are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, "It's because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God," shows it's an old problem that isn't going to go away.
“Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew, is great if you live in accord with God's law. But if you don't, it's worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true: The uncircumcised who keep God's ways are as good as the circumcised — in fact, better. Better to keep God's law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don't you see: It's not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew (or baptism and Confirmation or church membership that makes you a Christian). You become a Jew by who you are. It's the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.” (Romans 2:17-29 The Message)
Obviously, Paul is speaking to the Jews of his time (except for the little comments that I added). They were religious; they read their scriptures every day; they prayed, fasted, tithed and faithfully worshipped. They were the good, solid religious people who never questioned their standing with God. It never occurred to them that they, too, might be under God’s condemnation. But they were.
Why? Pride. By the way, pride was the sin that got Satan kicked out of heaven. Pride leads to hypocrisy. The Jews were proud of knowing God’s laws, but they were hypocrites in the fact that even knowing God’s laws, they kept breaking them. Paul condemns them by quoting scripture, "It's because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God,"
Obviously, we do the same today. In too many churches, religion comes before personal commitment to Christ. Religion makes us proud and self-righteous. But, really, we fail to be kind, honest, humble and loving. Why do so many stay away from church? Because they see through our game of religion and call it for what it is … phoney! It’s not merely a case of sinners who don’t want to see the light. True, Satan is blinding them. But not as much as the religious hypocrisy that is so prevalent in our fellowships.
So Paul is exposing the failure of religion in this passage. He clearly states that no one is free from sin. Even religious people need a change of heart and mind and action. The only thing that really matters is the mark of God on our hearts.
It should be painfully clear by now that God doesn’t grade on any kind of curve! In fact, each and every one of us fails to get a passing grade. Paul sums up God’s case against us with this final indictment.
“So where does that put us? Do we Jews (or Christians) get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

“‘There's nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They've all taken the wrong turn; they've all wandered down blind alleys. No one's living right; I can't find a single one. Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mud slides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison. They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin. Don't know the first thing about living with others. They never give God the time of day.’
“This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.
“But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this.” (Romans 3:9-22 The Message)
There it is. This isn’t the way we would want to evaluate people, but this is how God evaluates us.
Let’s use a baseball metaphor. There are all kinds of players in the major leagues. There is the guy who has a 180 batting average. There is the guy who hits 275. And then there’s that batting champ who knocks out an amazing 374. But who bats 1000? Nobody. Nobody bats 1000!
God tells us, “Be perfect as I am perfect.” That’s batting 1000! That’s His rule. And since He made up the Game, He makes the rules. If we can’t make it, we’re out of the game. So God sees us stepping up to the plate, grounding out and striking out time after time, even though once in a great while we might manage to get a double off the back wall. Even for the best of us, it’s a pretty poor performance. Nobody bats 1000.
So, the Good News is not only for the bad guys who don’t measure up. It’s for us good guys who think we do measure up, and for the religious guys who keep trying to measure up.
How does this Good News thing work? What makes the Gospel God’s power unto salvation?
We’ll look at that next time.

Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father … the bad news for this morning is that You really don’t grade on a curve … that You demand that we be perfect as You are perfect … and because of our sin nature, there’s no way we can do that. Not only that, our sin nature actually blinds us to that truth … leading us to believe, act and think we really are better than what’s his name over there … that since we’re such super good Christians it really okay for us to “call a spade a spade” and be critical, harsh, judgmental. After all, if we don’t point out someone’s fault, then who will? You will, on that final Judgment Day, when all of us, super good Christians and super bad guys and everyone in between, will stand before You and give an account for everything little thing we’ve done, thought, or said. God, that’s really bad news!
Thank You for the Good News … that You have sent Your Son Jesus to take the penalty for our sin upon Himself. And that when we give up our pride and humbly embrace and truly believe in Him and what He has done, then You see us as sinless, and lovingly welcome us in Your eternal Kingdom. Thank You, praise You, bless You!
And the people said, “Amen.”