Assume you've never met me, and that 95% of what you do know about me comes from reading this list:
1. Do not brush your teeth with epoxy
2. Do not swim in the North Atlantic during February
3. Do not eat raw chicken
4. Do not sleep while driving
5. Men should not ask their wives or girlfriends to borrow their clothes
Would you memorize those statements, and then walk around boasting about how well you know me? Of course not.
You wouldn't know me at all unless we talked, and talked regularly, over the course of our relationship. Who knows ... if you're sincerely interested in knowing me, you might even want to read my blog, every word of all 4370 posts, without quoting single points out of context to prove your feeling or perspective about me.
If you knew me and believed I was critically important to you and your life, any time you had a problem you'd want to talk to me about it and then apply my answers to your life ... without second guessing, fine-tuning or subverting my words to arrive at the outcome that suits you.
Quoting from a list of things I said doesn't prove a single thing about how well you know me, except (at best) that you don't know me at all.
Quoting from my list and then proclaiming, "I know Joe and Joe says I'm right" would reveal to the folks who do know me that you and I have never met. Not a single time.
Such a statement would also pretty convincingly proclaim that I don't know you, either.
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Why did Christ die in our place ... if memorizing or following the law was enough?
I'm not called to speak in place of the Creator. In my simple mind, I'd guess that as part of God's perfect plan, he saw that the "religious" men of that time had so twisted the law and the Commandments to prove their own holiness that they left God out of their lives altogether.
They believed God the Almighty had stopped talking soon as they reached the period at the end of a Commandment's sentence. Which, to the Pharisees, meant it seemed like a good idea to start tacking on man-made rules to complete God's holy word.
Because God is the living God, mankind needed, and still needs, the living Christ. But the Pharisees demanded Christ be crucified instead. How could that happen?
The Pharisees knew and memorized the Father's words, sure ... but they didn't know the Father. Neither did they love him or worship his Son. All that mattered to the Pharisees of Christ's day was following the letter of the law and keeping up a holy appearance; after all, wasn't that ... and not Christ ... what their religion was all about?
No wonder Christ was so furious with the temple's money changers.
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What got me thinking about this post was Jesus' warning, Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23)
How could so many people who profess themselves to be followers of Christ be so confused ... and so eternally Wrong?
Could be because those people who know all about the rules, know all the regulations, know all their religion's traditions and know exactly the "right way" and the "only way to do church" spend so much time finding fault, criticizing other believers and blogging about "that church" or "that pastor" that they never make time for knowing and listening to Christ.
All they know is the list. But if the list was enough, then we wouldn't need Christ.
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It wouldn't surprise me if, during Judgement, some of those same "church" folks, the ones who prove their love for Christ by finding fault with every other faith and with every other pastor but their own, won't try standing face to face with Jesus and arguing: "What's wrong with you? How can you say you don't know me? Haven't you been paying attention to how righteous I tell other people I am!?"
Just like they're used to doing, arguing and presenting themselves, in this life.
