The Bible On Trial

Playing by the Rules!

Imagine trying to just show up at the Augusta National golf course for the Masters golf tournament (being played this now through the weekend) and going to the Competition Committee and demanding to be allowed to enter the tournament. The Committee would ask you if you have qualified for the tournament in one of the regional golf tournaments, and you answer that you don't even know how to play golf, you don't know the rules, and you have no idea how a golf game is played. But then you say with all sincerity that this doesn't matter because you have a personal friend that said that he would play the game in your stead, and that you don't need to know the rules, all you have to know is that HE knows the rules, and knows how to win the tournament, and when he wins he will give you the trophy.

After you have been thrown off of the property, being banned from ever coming back, you would figure out that this is NOT the way the game is played. No one can play the game for you. You must not only know the rules, but you are required to be able to play the game at a certain high level, such that you would be competitive with those that have been playing the game their whole lives. And as to having someone play the game for you and then give you the trophy, you would realize that this is anathema to any kind of competition. 

 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." Rev. 3:21.

We are in the Competition of and for our lives with respect to Sanctification and Eternal Life, and yet many people believe that they bear no responsibility in overcoming anything, because they believe that Jesus overcame FOR them, and will hand them the trophy of eternal life that HE won for them. Sadly, this attitude does not work in golf, or in life.