Have You Landed in the Safety Net of Absolute Grace?

The worst tragedy would be to turn the Sermon on the Mount into another form of legalism; it should rather put an end to all legalism. Legalism like the Pharisees’ will always fail, not because it is too strict but because it is not strict enough. Thunderously, inarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and coveters. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.
–Philip Yancey

The Pharisees held rigidly to the letter of the law. Jesus said that doing so wasn’t enough… you also had to keep the spirit of the law. Instead of refraining from killing someone (the Pharisees’ stance), you could not even hate them (Jesus’ stance). And so the legalism of the Pharisees wasn’t sufficient. It was not strict enough, it didn’t go far enough. And so in reading the words given to us by Jesus, we realize that we are all the same: people who need the grace that only comes through Jesus.

I may not be a murderer, but I have definitely been a temper-thrower.
I may not be an adulterer, but I have definitely been a luster.
I may not be a thief, but I have definitely been a coveter.

I am unable to meet the standard that God requires of me. And so that means that I need the grace of Jesus to cover up my failures. I have nowhere to land but in the safety net of His grace. And since everyone else is in the same boat as me, I have no place for pride, no place for looking down on others, no place for prejudice or bias.

God, please remove these ungodly things from me as I rest in the safety net of Your amazing grace.