Not Keeping Score

A couple of years ago, I went to watch my nephew play soccer. He was, arguably, the best player on his team and he wanted me to see him play. I remember watching the game and asking my brother what was the score of the game. He responded with, "They don't keep track of the score." Excuse me? They don't keep track of the score? This wasn't practice, it was a game. Apparently, the score wasn't kept in order to facilitate "fair play", avoid hurt feelings or something of that nature. Political correctness strikes again. The funny thing is that when my nephew came over to the sidelines he told me the score. His team was "winning." I cracked up because a rule designed to protect the kids wasn't working with the kids. I guess the old saying, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game," was being taken to extremes. Personally, the lack of keeping score would eventually end up hurting the kids. Because in real life, the score is kept. Unless they get use to handling winning and losing they won't know how to handle those things when they grow up. However, as much as I dislike political correctness because it tries to cover up, tolerate or ignore things like sin, in some ways it represents an aspect of the character of God.

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

In the world of the politically correct there is no such thing as sin. We see it displayed in how something like abortion is called "choice" or homosexuality is called a "lifestyle" in order to legitimize the sin and for the activity to gain acceptance. I guess the idea is that if you don't acknowledge it then it doesn't exist. God doesn't see our sins either. However, it is not an acknowledgement that they don't exist and, definitely, not an attempt to legitimize them or accept them. What many people don't realize is that God wants to have an individual relationship with everybody on the face of this earth. However, He had to do something with the sin that prevented that relationship from taking place. He knew that there was nothing in the world that we could do in order to deal with the sin issue that separated us from Him. But, as Isaiah prophesied, God would make our sins "as white as snow" and "like wool." The way He would establish that relationship with mankind is by doing it Himself. In the person of Jesus Christ, God came to this earth, to die in our place in order that the sin issue would no longer come between us and Him.

"Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." Hebrews 10: 17-18

You notice that God says their "sins and lawless acts" as proof He realizes the depraved state all of us are in. Political correctness denies this condition exists. But, similar to political correctness, He remembers are sins and lawless acts "no more." Many Christians don't understand this truth about God as they seem to do everything in their power to keep reminding God of their sins. Just this morning I overheard the narrator on a Christian program ask his listeners, "Is unconfessed sin stealing the joy of your salvation?" An obvious attempt to guilt people into believing that some sin they are struggling with is separating them from God. If anybody is not experiencing the joy of their salvation, one reason they are not may be that they don't know that God doesn't remember their sins anymore. Therefore, they are vulnerable to falling into the trap of trying to find a sacrifice for their sins that God no longer requires or accepts. Confession booths, short accounts, altar calls and saying pennance are just a small sample of the many sacrifices man has come up with in order to satisfy an already propitiated God.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4: 12

Despite the attempts by those in charge of my nephew's soccer game to avoid having winners and losers, by not keeping score, my nephew wasn't fooled. He was keeping track of everything that was going on. God is no different. He is not fooled by our feeble attempts to mask our sins by changing the rules or ignoring the obvious. We may be able to deceive each other because we can't see into the heart. But, God can. There is no shortage of people that think mankind is inheritantly good and if we just ignore our sins we can create some sort of Utopian society. Eventually, no matter how successful we believe ourselves to be in this endeavor, a time will come when those that believe they are fooling God will be face to face with Him. It is at this time that they will realize that God wasn't keeping score. But, because they denied the fact that there were sins God wasn't counting against them, they missed the salvation He was offering to them in Christ Jesus. The consequence of such a mistake will have eternal ramifications. While they sought to level the playing field by not having winners and losers they will see that, ultimately, they have lost the real game.