Yes! Every Man Should

May 15

“Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need,” Ephesians 4:28.

All of us have done or are engaged in doing things for which we are not proud. We know in our hearts what is right and true and good, but we fall short of our own perception of right conduct. If we cannot even live up to our own standard of goodness, we can imagine by how great a gap we fall short of God’s holy, immutable standard or righteousness.

One of the world’s great monotheistic religions believes that on Judgment Day each man’s works will be weighed in a balance. If his good works outweigh his bad, he will go to eternal paradise. If his bad works outweigh his good, he will be plunged into eternal punishment.

Christianity does not subscribe to this notion of staying one jump ahead of hell by being sure to do good more frequently than doing bad. Christianity subscribes to the Biblical admonition that all sin is an affront to our Holy God (see Romans 3:23). It may not be equal in magnitude as man measures sin’s gravity but it is equal in that all sin is a stench in God's nostrils and separates man from Him.

God created us for fellowship with Himself. Man is made in His image (see Genesis 1:27) where it says man is made in His own likeness. That distinction makes man capable of interaction with the Holy One that other created beings cannot enjoy. Neither can man enjoy it as long as he is encumbered with sin.

Whether a man merely dabbles in sin or whether he is immersed in sin—whether he pilfers the occasional penny from the cash register where he works or whether he is a terrorist on whose hands is the blood of uncountable innocents—each man has separated himself from his Maker because of his involvement in sin.

The Word says, “Let him who stole steal no more…” as quoted above. It could say, “Let the adulterer stray no more,” or “Let the liar lie no more,” or “Let the terrorist hate no more,” or “Let the murderer kill no more,” or “Let the false minister deceive no more,” or…and we may here charge man to forsake all manner of sin.

But we know that as a dog “returns to its vomit,” and as “a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud,” Proverbs 26:11, so man, in spite of his best intentions, is inclined to return to the sin that besets him. But in Christ, He can be set free! Because of the shed blood of our Lord, he can be washed clean! As Isaiah 1:18 tells the sinner, “Though your sins be scarlet, they can be washed white as snow.”

Should not every man, everyone who is under the curse of sin avail himself of the wonderful cleansing power of the blood of the One who lived and died and lives again! Should not everyone under the curse of God’s perfect and immutable law that he cannot possibly keep though his own strength or his own resolve (see Galatians 3:10) let the cleansing flood of Calvary course over him and through him that he might be made forever clean and righteous before our Holy God!

Yes! Every man should!