A man condemns dishonesty until telling the truth will cost him something. Then his lie becomes complicated. There were circumstances. Someone might have misunderstood. He had his reasons; but if another man lies to him, suddenly things get simple again.
He knows there is a standard. He just wants to move it to fit his momentary situation.
That little habit can grow into an entire way of life. We borrow a belief here, dismiss a command there, and keep whatever leaves us comfortable. Before long, we have assembled a god who approves of everything we already wanted. He never corrects us, never asks us to repent, and somehow always takes our side. A convenient arrangement—until we realize whose voice we have been listening to.
Our own.
God gave us the freedom to make choices. We can tell the truth or dress up a lie. We can show mercy or nurse a grudge until it feels like justice. Those choices are real, and so is our responsibility for them. Yet the freedom to choose never included the authority to make cruelty good, make falsehood true, or require God to approve what He has condemned. We can cross a boundary He established. We cannot erase it by stepping over it.
That is where the royal delusion begins to crack. A man may rule a household, command an army, or persuade a crowd that wrong is right. He may even escape every earthly court. God still knows what happened. Applause cannot make an accusation true. Power cannot make abuse righteous. The man who insists that nobody can judge him will still answer to the One who can.
There is mercy in discovering that we still answer to God while there is time to turn to Him. We can stop defending every wrong thing we have done. God already knows the whole account, and Christ has already paid the price we could never pay for ourselves. Faith receives His rescue. It does not negotiate a private set of terms or purchase forgiveness with a promise to behave better. We come with empty hands because He has supplied what those hands could never earn.
The choice remains ours. We can trust the Savior or keep defending our claim to His seat. God has already declared where those roads lead. Neither our excuses nor our confidence will change His verdict.
We can give ourselves the title, but we cannot give ourselves the throne.
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.” —Proverbs 21:2
—Jeff Wager
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