God's Infinite Mercy

I recently read The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. First off, the book is not a swashbuckling adventure in the mold of The Da Vinci Code. Rather, the book is a series of dialogues that explore possible links between Isaiah 9:10, the 2001 terrorist attacks, and the global economic meltdown of 2008. The book has generated some controversy, so I won't wade into those discussions here.

Nonetheless, I was completely struck by a conversation that began on page 226. Without giving away important parts of the plot, that conversation notes that, as humans, we tend to grade our own righteousness according to our own self-created standards. But we should be comparing ourselves to God's standards!

The books asks us to consider the most evil person ever born (whoever that might be). How much distance, measured in righteousness, separates us from that person? Maybe a lot, but that distance is finite. Now consider the distance, measured in righteousness, between God and us. That distance is infinite! That means that, from God's perspective, we are worse than the most evil person even born, when viewed from our perspective.

How do we overcome such an infinite gap in righteousness? As Jesus says in Matthew 19:26 (NLT),

Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.

God's mercy is infinite! All we can do is humble ourselves before him, and accept his infinite love.

Anyway, that material in the Harbinger is already in the Bible. But it struck me nonetheless.