Tuesday: Other Proposed Ways Out of the Dilemma
WEEK 39
TUESDAY
OTHER PROPOSED WAYS OUT OF THE DILEMMA
John 14:1-6
We are looking at the various answers to the human dilemma, “What should we do?” We come to another answer, the answer of the ordinary Hindu. It is the answer that would pile up good deeds to overbalance the bad deeds, and thus the balance to one’s account would get one out of the dilemma. You are saved by a good deed. This is the answer not only of the ordinary Hindu but also of the ordinary person in the West, “I’m not so bad; I do a lot of good deeds.”
The fallacy of this is obvious. If one does good deeds the balance of his or her days, with a perfect record—no missteps, no departure from the moral law—it still wouldn’t touch the fact that the person has broken the law and has sinned against God and therefore broken a relationship. All our good deeds cannot cancel that guilt and restore that broken relationship.
Our Roman Catholic friends have an answer that is strangely like the Hindu answer, that we must do so many penances for so much guilt. These penances are usually the praying of so many prayers. But penances are a degradation of New Testament repentance. Repentance is a turning from, and penance is atonement for. The difference is profound. Penances are a kind of religious magic; they wipe out the sins by their repetition. The prayers are degraded in the process. And in the end they encourage repetition of the sins, since they can be atoned for by further penances. A low standard of morality is usually to be found where penances are the answer.
Then there is the answer of the Muslim, strangely akin to the above. That answer says: Go through the prayers five times a day; fast on required days; repeat the Koran, especially the creed—“There is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet”; go on pilgrimages. Do all this and your sins are cut off. This answer is faithfulness to a religious system. But it is a faith; it does not turn into fact. The Muslims believe but do not illustrate. They are still on a quest. I have never seen one who impressed me as having found the answer.
O Divine Redeemer, redeem us from ways that lead to dead ends and frustrated hopes. Lead us from the ways to the Way, the Way that is self-verifying. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: When people see Christians, they must think not of question marks but of exclamation points.