Which is worse: murder or lying? In human society, murder is much worse. I’d go to prison for it. But lying is so commonplace that we seem happy to elect someone to lead us no matter how flagrantly or frequently they lie.

In God’s kingdom these two sins are equal. The punishment is exactly the same: death.

To God, all sin is unbearable. Every single command of His must be obeyed perfectly, or I am sentenced to death. That means the very first time I lied or disrespected my parents or took the Lord’s name in vain or murdered someone, I was deemed ineligible to enter God’s kingdom.

Fortunately God found a way to wash me clean of all my many, many ugly sins. He sent Jesus. Jesus did live a life free from sin, but then died in my place. This freed me from the onus of those commands of God. I no longer need to fret about this sin or that sin, what the 10 Commandments say or any of the other 600 or so laws in the Bible. Not only did Jesus fulfill the law for me, He simplified my task going forward.

“For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬, ‭CSB‬‬)

To please God, I just need to focus on loving. Jesus’s forgiving sacrifice takes care of the rest.

Dear God,

I am so grateful for your mercy that saves me from my deserved punishment. I am also so thankful that the only law I need to concern myself with, because of Jesus, is the beautiful simplicity of loving others. Teach me how to succeed in that today.