WE TRY TOO HARD

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You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also."
John 8:15‭-‬16‭, ‬19 ESV

¶Scribes and Pharisees set themselves up as judges based on their right to rule as children of Abraham. As hard as they tried, though, they could never make it work. Jesus changed all that. He did not need to earn the Pharisees' approval. He offered salvation, a path to God, not through rules-keeping, but through a relationship. He is the good shepherd who actually knows His sheep. He comes to dwell among us. He alone is worthy to open the scroll. We can let go of our efforts to earn anyone's approval. Those efforts just get in the way. Abide in Him. Rest in His actual, unmerited approval.

 1 Cor 4:3 "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me."

Rom 8:33 "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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