“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24
The current gray days signal not only the coming of winter but the impending end of the fiscal year. The corporate books for the year 2013 will soon be officially closed and final tax burdens calculated. Corporate financial statements will be prepared and sent to our accountant. He will filter those numbers through the various sieves of the tax code, which will inevitably retain more money than I consider reasonable; a gray day indeed.
The complexity of the tax code forces businesses to hire professional accountants to guide them through the morass of regulations. Millions are annually spent on tax accountants for the sole purpose of avoiding the monster of the taxation wilderness – the IRS. Paying taxes is bad enough but no one wants to incur notice of the government’s intention to audit; a gray day indeed.
The IRS is generally the most feared government agency in the United States. They are feared because they can cast anyone into a financial abyss based on the authority of their field audit, while most are overwhelmed by regulations they don’t understand.
As a result, the IRS probably does not have corporations lining up, requesting to be audited. I don’t think anyone has sent them a message saying, “Search me, O IRS, and know my financials! Try me and know my deductions! And see if there be any grievous way in my financial statements, and lead me in the way of a penalty!”
I am an honest business person. There is nothing in our corporate financials that worries me but I still don’t relish the idea (cost and time) of being audited. However, imagine someone engaged in the cat and mouse game of tax evasion. Imagine their fear of being audited. They know that their tax forms have lies and deception. People have gone to prison for tax evasion; an audit for them would be a gray day indeed.
However, the IRS would not be feared if we all had the assurance that our accounts were completely in accordance to the IRS standards.
The majority of world religions and many professing Christians fear God like the IRS. They are just hoping to squeak past the final audit in the sky. Concern has to arise regarding some of the more shaky deductions associated with the justifying of unseemly actions. Uncertainty is the norm when gambling that the assets of good works might actually net eternal life when balanced against the liabilities of sin.
God as the Great Auditor should be feared more than the IRS.
Most are about as willing to welcome God in to do a spiritual audit as they are the IRS. Most do not seek God to search their lives and know their heart. They know what He will find. So, they live in fear of receiving the ultimate penalty.
Therefore, they have no assurance of their eternal destination until the final auditing of the Great Auditor; a gray life indeed.
The Bible is very clear that God the Father is the Great Auditor. However, He is so much more than a final judge.
He is the Great Physician also. Jesus Christ came into this world for the sick.
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. (Matthew 9:12-13)
He did not come to show us how to increase the spiritual assets of our works and decrease the liabilities of sin in the hope of obtaining a profitable balance to squeak past the Great Auditor.
He came to heal people from sin. He completed that work in all who have been born again in Christ. For those in Christ, we have been completely healed from the condemnation of our sin. We have been completely justified by the work of the Great Physician. Our eternal hope rests assured in the work of Christ, our healer. I wrote about how we can know that assurance in ETERNITY CONFIDENCE INDICATOR. Those who have been healed by the Great Physician do not have to fear the Great Auditor; our accounts are completely in accordance to God’s standards because they are basis on the work of Christ, whose righteousness has been credited to us.
However, sin still dwells within me. I look at my life and I know that in many areas I fail to live up to the commandments of God. While my eternal hope is secure, I still need the Great Physician to continue to work in my life, transforming me more and more into the unblemished image of His son. We call that sanctification.
As with any physician, we need God to examine us. We need him to search for all the sin buried deep in our heart as an oncologist would search for hidden cancer. Nothing good comes from ignoring symptoms of cancerous growth. A physician has to be allowed to search for the cause of all those abnormalities.
The Spirit of God is that physician. This is the life of a follower of Christ; yielding to the Great Physician.
We live healed from the terminal condition of sin. There is no reason to fear the judgement of God.
We live in continuing need of the Great Physician. May we live daily in submission to His examination of our hearts, allowing Him to reveal to us anything that is grievous and then removing it.
That is a bright life, indeed.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you for not saving me to a gray life of uncertain works. Thank you for showing me mercy and grace by healing me from the terminal condition of my sin. O Lord, search me and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! See if there are any grievous ways in me! Father, examine me completely and show me those areas where sin lingers. Cleanse me of all my unrighteousness. May I glorify you in all that I do. I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
A DEVOTED LIFE 