The Night Sky

When a child looks up at the night sky and sees the stars, they often think to themselves, "Look at all those tiny little lights!" With their unaided eyes, they cannot recognize the overwhelming magnitude of the celestial luminaries they are actually seeing. They can hardly imagine that things which appear so minuscule to their eyes, could, in reality, be so colossal.

In the same way, when a man looks into his sinful heart, he often thinks to himself, "Look at those tiny little sins!" He sees his flaws and acknowledges their presence, but he does not see them rightly. He admits that he is not perfect, but he also asserts that he is not so bad either. He tells himself that he is in no danger of God's judgment because he is mostly good.

Yet, just as plainly as we know that the child's eyes have deceived him, so too is the person deceived who thinks they are pretty good and have no need to fear the coming judgment of God. As surely as the lens of the telescope proves false the child's naive assessment, so the lens of Holy Scripture unquestionably reveals the desperate need of every sinful man to repent and turn to Jesus in faith.

But there is one more contrast still to be made. A child who holds a wrong view of the stars is in no great danger. No one will be judged by their beliefs about the stars. Yet a man who holds a wrong view of his need for forgiveness from God is in great danger. For when he stands before the holy God he will be seen as he is truly is; he will be utterly exposed. And as he stands naked before the throne of the Almighty, he will not be judged by his own naive assessment of the depth and guilt of his sin, but by the holy and unchangeable Law of God; a Law which ever-declares: "No one is righteous, no not one."

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls, (Acts 2:37-41).