A Good Attempt

Last night, I tried cooking some chicken in a smoking tray on the grill. The chicken didn't come out too badly, but I could tell why the trays failed for the company that gave me the sample. The idea was that in grilling the wood chips in the bottom of the tray, the vent holes would allow the chicken to smoke like in a smoker. It was a good attempt, but didn't quite get the job done properly. I thought this morning of how our attempts to save ourselves through good works and good intentions come out much the same way. We make a good attempt, but something is basically wrong from the start. A tray on the grill is not a smoker, and a sinner in need of salvation cannot do enough good to save himself. A tray heated on the grill is still just a tray, and a sinner doing good works is still a sinner. We need a change at the base level in order to do the job properly.

I can take up a religion, and there are many choices, that promises a path to enlightenment, absolution, peace, contentment, or even salvation, and perhaps all of the above, but no amount of working upwards along some path of works is going to save me. At the top of the mountain of good works, I would be a sinner with a certificate in good work mountaineering. All that work, and I would still be in need of salvation. Completing the guru's course, only means that I get the paper saying what I already know. A course in mountain climbing or increasing knowledge does not seem to be the right answer. What or who is the answer to our need for a change at the base level?

In the Bible, God gave the Law that spells out what must be done. Everyone who tried it seems to have failed to make it work. Some kept the law, like the Pharisees, but the base level sinners remained in the same state. There was no group better at keeping the Law, in fact they added a bunch of their own rules to make the challenge more interesting it seems. Yet, no group received a harsher condemnation from Jesus than those same Jewish religious leaders. After centuries of the Law, God sent something new in the person of Jesus Christ. God said at the basic level, 'I have shown that you cannot save yourselves, therefore I will do it.' And He did.

Bucky