The Message Hasn't Changed: We Need Jesus

We need Jesus. We accept a lie perpetuated by the enemy when we believe that we don't. We can have great noble intentions, lead a good life, care for people, live a simple life and still we will have fallen short of what we were created to be. Let's consider for a moment the best of the best, the cream of the crop of our humanity.

Solomon had it all. He had all the wealth a person could have and he was generous with it. He had fame because of the wisdom Yahweh had given him, and he put it to good use. He established a kingdom of peace and other nations and leaders honoured him. This was a great man who achieved what many leaders today can only dream of achieving. Yet he still fell short.

Yahweh only required one thing of him, all he has every asked from anyone:

Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you,and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ (1 Kings 9:6-5)

It's all a father ever asks of his child, obedience. But this man, who represented the best version of ourselves, with all the tools that had been given to him, fell short of that obedience. Yahweh had commanded Israel not to get involved with other nations, not to intermarry because these nations would lead them astray. Yahweh knows our heart. All his instructions were about what was best for us. But, not only did Solomon disobey these instructions, he did it in a major way:

But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—  from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:1-3)

Was Yahweh trying to be mean with this command? Not at all, he knows our heart and was trying to protect his people. How many children brush aside their parents' instruction and end up in hot water? Their selfishness takes over their heart. Solomon proved Yahweh to be correct:

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. (v. 4)

This great man, who had everything a person could want as a result of his relationship with Yahweh, threw that relationship away in disobedience. This is why we need Jesus. No matter how good you think you are you are not capable of living at the level Father has intended for us. We will always fall short of his glory. Good is not good enough.

Jesus does not care about us falling short; it doesn't stop him from loving us. He didn't come to seek the perfect. He came for us. He came to pay the penalty of us falling short, to take our place. He bridged the gap for you and me so we could have the relationship that Yahweh wants with us. He also gave us the Holy Spirit to develop in us a heart like David's, one that is consumed with Yahweh, desiring to please him and live for his glory. None of us can do this on our own. We need Jesus.