But I followed all the rules!

 Something that comes up a lot during COVID is when people get the virus, they will immediately say that they were for sure following all the rules.  

The line goes like this "I was doing everything right, wore my mask, stayed 2 metres apart from everyone, and only went out for essentials, and somehow, I got COVID." 

 

Sure.  I bet.  Here's the core issue, though, which is that if you were following all the rules, how'd you get the COVID.  In reality, the measures that we have in place have been quite stringent, and especially at the beginning of the pandemic, if you were following all those rules, it would have been difficult to have contracted the virus.  But people way overestimated how well they were following all the protocols. And people got sick.

When people say 'I followed all the rules,' what that's code for is 'I did what was convenient, and thought that I would get away with it.'  Absolutely.  And you know who else did that?  Almost everybody! That's why the push for the vaccine has been so key, because the vaccine, once applied, doesn't depend on the effort of the one who has received it to remain valid.  It works in the background, and as long as you get stuck with two doses, it's effective enough.  But depending on the average person to follow through on the restrictions well enough to keep the variants at bay?  Yikes.

Now, in the Old Testament, you see the first example of this, really. You see Adam and Eve, fallen into sin, and being confronted by God who asks them what's up. And as soon as God skewers them, Adam and Eve begin to come up with excuses.  Because why wouldn't they?  As soon as God confronts them, they both immediately rush to shirk responsibility.  Oh no, God, it wasn't my fault!  I was following the rules!  But this woman that you gave me, she put the fruit into my hands.  Oh no, God, it wasn't my fault, it was this snake that you put here, he tricked me. If it wasn't for him, I would have done the right thing the whole time.

Of course.

But if you were all following the rules so well, how is everyone still sinning?  Or, more likely, is this a case of everyone claiming they're following the rules to a T, but somehow staying far far from them?  Is this a case of everyone assuming that they're doing a far better job than they're actually doing?  Because that would be tiresomely predictable.  

That's what we do all the time.  Not just with COVID you understand, but with everything.  All the time, no matter what, we look at the wreckage our sinful lives cause, and shrug, and say 'well, it's not really my fault.  I was doing my best.  I was trying my hardest.  It's one of a number of things that is someone else's fault.  Not mine.'  But if everybody in society does that, then how do things get better?

What it comes down to, really, is to understand that we have it almost completely backwards.  What we do is to hype up ourselves, and claim that all the problems are outside us somewhere, when in reality, it's the opposite.  Our sins are our own problem.  We do things that we want to do because it benefits us, at least in the short term.  We do what we want to do, and hope to get away with it, and sometimes we do.  But in reality, that's the cause of our misery. We do that, and so does everyone else.  And then we act surprised.  Not just that COVID cases are going up, but that there is so much misery in the world.  It should be impossible, if we're all doing the right things.

But as a Christian, you have to understand that the pointing outside you that you do should be about righteousness, not sin.  The sin that you have, that's in you, and is caused by you.  But the righteousness, that belongs to God. And what that means is that you don't have to pretend anymore.  You don't have to hold up the banner that say that you're doing the right thing, and have always been doing the right thing.  Instead, you get to hold up a banner that says that it's not the sin that exists outside you, but the righteousness does.  If you don't do that, then eventually, you will be found out.  Eventually, someone will ask the hard question as to why you are the way you are, what you do, and so on.  You'll be in the world where your sins will be on full display, and will be obvious.  And at that point, the only thing to do is to cop to them: Yes, I committed those sins, and I shouldn't have.  

And if anyone asks at that moment what kind of Christian you are, you can answer by saying 'a repentant one.  and a forgiven one.  In fact, the only kind of Christian that has ever existed.'  For there truly has never been another kind.  Look through the scriptures, and you will find example after example of even the closest disciple behaving badly, getting up to no good, being faithless, doubting, all that.  They do all that, and still come off as holy and blessed because the source of their salvation has already been taken care of.

And it's precisely because they don't do their best that they need Christ.  If you were as good as you think you are, you wouldn't need Jesus.  But you do.  Because your sins are your own, but the righteousness is Christ's.  And then something amazing happens. The sins that you caused get transferred over to him. That's how you can afford to say 'I know I shouldn't have done those things.  But thanks be to God that he took those sins away.  I made the mistakes, but I claim the righteousness that can't be taken away.'

I go back to this line over and over again, because it really stuck with me.  It was from the Swan Princess, a movie that essentially nobody has seen.  In it, the wicked sorcerer is trying to marry the princess to gain the throne.  When asked why he doesn't just take the throne by force and become king by force of arms, he replies thusly:

"Once you steal something, you have to spend your whole life fighting to keep it."

Our self-righteousness, our carefully crafted image is stolen. And because it is stolen, we have to fight to keep it.  The borders must always be patrolled, the ramparts must be monitored, because the image is stolen.  The only way for something not to be stolen is for it to be given or earned.  Look at yourself and your history, and ask if you have actually earned your righteousness.  I haven't and I'd wager that you haven't either.  Sure, you may be in the process of getting away with it, but earning it?  Unlikely.  But, it can be given.  And is.  And that means that your righteousness isn't a matter of skating by and trying not to be found out.  It means that your righteousness is stored in Christ, and can't be taken away.  Nobody is ever going to find out that he isn't who he says he is.  Nobody is going to find out that he isn't as good or as pure or as righteous as he claims to be.  And if your store of goodness rests and lies in him, and is given to you, then it is safe, unassailable, and rightfully yours.  

Pointing outside you to sin but inside you to righteousness is backwards, though it is what we have wanted to do since Adam. But pointing inside you to sin and outside you to righteousness is a path towards grace.  Which is the basis for the Christian faith.