That is roughly 2 people every second of every day of the year. We all know that death is not bias…it can come to any of us at any given moment. It can strip us down, it can steal away a piece of our soul when we lose loved ones, and if death comes for you today, all that you worked for, strived for, to leave as your legacy, would be gone within 5 generations, forever forgotten to the world of tomorrow. So we should agree that death is a very serious concern to think about. But the number one fear in America is not death…it is public speaking.
I have pondered this and reveled at this for some time, and the conclusion/opinion I have come to is as follows:
We are not afraid of speaking....we are afraid of being judged…
but why?
Let’s first look at how we feel about judgment to establish a base line.
Most of us know in our hearts that“wrongs” should be dealt with justly. We all have a sense ingrained in us that judgment for wrongs is “good”. We (humanity) set up judicial systems toregulate and punish criminals because we all know it to be right to do so. I mean, we all think if someone murders or steals, they should be punished, right? Justice keeps morality relevant among people, and we all know morality matters, whether we argue for it or not.
Most people will tell you that they try to be “good” people, and this is for a real reason…because we know “good” is just, and “bad” deserves justice. Judgment is a part of our soul. It is in our DNA as natural and good. So why is public speaking the number one fear in America and not death? I think this is because judgment from peers is “today”, in the moment, and at the forefront of our lives, but not many of us think about being judged at the time of our death...Which is quite curious really…Is that because we think that when we die, we won’t be judged? Or maybe we think death is a long way off? Death seems a bit distant to most people I guess, but public ridicule can be right now, today, and that scares most folks to death (no pun intended).
This leads me to my next point. I spoke this week about judgment, and sin, with several people who seemed to think that they were better or worse off than other people based on the “amount of sin” and “wrongs” they had done. They spoke as if God has an on-going tally and is keeping up with sins by (metaphorically) placing black marks beside our names in the book of life. The more marks, the worse the judgment. I heard sentences like, “You don’t know all the bad things I have done”, or “God knows who the really bad people are and who have just sinned a small amount”. These people were applying our judicial system to God’s hand of justice, but failing to see one key flaw in their logic…but I will come back to that point in a minute.
The logic behind their perspective supports the following thought then....
- Hitler killed millions of people, not directly with his own hand, but directly enough for him to be held accountable to a judge, so he is a “worse sinner” than someone like a child who has committed only a few minor sins, like telling a small lie –
Now we can agree that most children have told at least one lie, or maybe taken something from someone else-irrespective of its value- but these are considered the, “everybody has done them” sins, so they are less “bad” by our culture’s standards of justice. I hear people all the time say things like, “Everybody has lied at some point” or “everybody has taken a pen or something small at some point or another”…right?
The problem with this logic is simple…who makes the rules? Do you get to make the rules of what’s bad and what’s good? Do I get to make them? Does Hitler make the rules? What do we base our standard on, and are every one's standards set the same? Consider this dilemma further… someone who never lies might consider a lie to be atrocious and unforgivable...a terrible injustice. On the other hand, if you have lied before, or do so on occasion, then you might be one of the ones who says, “well, everybody lies sometimes, that just makes me human”.You see the problem? I mean Hitler had a nation convinced that his rules were the best out there, and that what he was doing was good. Therein lies the problem…we know justice is good, but we need an absolute moral code with a serious set of rules with real justice to regulate all the people with all the varying moral ethics.
You see, our culture has slowly molded our humanity, and that has caused a recession in our view of sin. Now, we judge sins like the courts judge crimes. Of course, this is a natural self-righteous response because we want to feel like “better” people than a murdered or a liar or a thief or a “real” sinner. But when we make our own moral rules based on our standards of morality, which are much too low to promote a perfect world, we will always favor ourselves and will be skewed by what our culture tells us is OK, and not OK.
The world tells us that some sins are of lighter “value” than others because culture has grown to accept certain sins as “normal”. It has become natural to think of sin as having "levels" so we can allocate the proper judgment to the crime.
Now back to Hitler… The above assessment of sin, based on our moral standards, means that someone like Hitler is a worse person than my 9 year old daughter, whose only sin might be telling a few lies....but this is simply NOT true. The Bible says sin is sin, and a holy and righteous God cannot look upon sin, so in his eyes, we are all the same....we are all EQUALLY guilty...PERIOD. Sinners...PERIOD. There are no "better" sinners than others...there are only sinners who have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and are willingto turn from sin and follow Jesus, and sinners who refuse God’s grace and choose to continue to live life for themselves and for their sin.
We need to remember that ALL of humanity is broken in God’s eyes because “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” - Romans 3:23. The term ALL literally means “all created humanity” here, and HAVE SINNEDin the sentence notes that you either have, or have not…there is only one or the other. It doesn’t matter how many sins, how bad of sin, how hurtful, how petty….sin is sin and even one sin is enough for a perfect, holy, and righteous God to be required in His perfection to judge you perfectly for your crime against Him. One sin = criminal, and criminal means justice. He must judge sin this way because He is perfect and holy, and a “good” judge must judge sin with a standard of perfect morality. “For the wages of sin is death…”– Roman 6:23
But, the important thing is that there is hope, and God has provided a way for ALL the sinners to be forgiven.“…but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” – Roman 6:23.
He sent His son, Jesus, the only sinless soul ever, to carry all the judgment for all the sin of all time on His shoulders. God literally became a man, and was murdered as a sinless man for crimes He never committed, to take the judgment for our sins, so that we might have a way to become clean in His sight.
The bottom line about sin is simple….One sin makes a sinner…but God loves All of us sinners, and killed His son for ALL, and laid His wrath for ALL the sins of ALL humanity on His Son's shoulders that we might ALL have redemption from this sin that we are born into...the choice is ours, the gift is HIS.
- “For God so loved THE WORLD (this means ALL THE PEOPLE OF ALL TIME) that He sent His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER (this means anyone, everyone, and ALL, no matter your crimes, who chose to believe) believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life” – John 3:16
It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, how “bad” you think you are, or what you think you are worthy of, God will forgive you. If you make the conscious decision that you want to turn from sin, deep inside your heart, and truly repent, and you ask Jesus to come into your heart and reveal the truth to you, He will show Himself to you, and what you will soon know is truly miraculous.... Please give special attention to that word “miraculous”, because I do not use it lightly.
May God bless us all for we are ALL in need of a savior and He came to show us He loves us and to offer salvation to those who want it.
God bless
