Pay Day Judgment Day

My sins are small, thus what do I have to fear?
The Lord God hates some sins more than others;
Theft is bad, but murder is much more dear;
Adultery and rape are not twin brothers!
All will be clear to Him on Judgment Day,
When each good deed is stacked against the bad,
My good works are sure the evil to outweigh,
And win me praise from the Judging Triad!
My sins are but to tell a lie or two;
To curse or use His name or oaths in vain,
i broke my marriage vows; His word eschew;
These should bring only a little disdain!
I wonder why I've this great disquietude,
From whence this iron grip, or this somber mood?

How wrong we can be, rationalizing our sins away! The subject of our poem rehearsed the defense he could muster for Judgment Day to justify his living without God. In his defense he commits error after error as we all do in assessing our lives.

"Then the Lord said to him, 'Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness." (Luke 11:39)

There are at least 4 broken Commandments listed in the litany of admitted sins by our poem friend, with others maybe unadmitted. He stole, and we are commanded not to steal. He lied, and God commands us not to give false testimoy. He has broken his marriage vows. which were made to God; his sin is to God, and he has wronged a neighbor---his wife. He has taken the Lord's name in vain. Worst of all, he has broken the First Commandment, which is to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his stength, and with all his mind. Believe me, if he had ever given God a thought, it would have been the first thing on his list. And though he didn't know it, God doesn't measure your stack of good deeds against your stack of bad deeds to determine righteousness; one sin outweighs a thousand good deeds.

Many people who are non-believers rehearse their lives, or at least the parts that seem best to please God; but if you have to resort to that in answer to a Christian's behest for you to accept Christ, you've lost God's acceptance already. Your fate begins and ends with Jesus. Either you know Him, love Him, and obey Him, or you're a goner. No counting of good deeds will help one iota. Dozens have answered me: "Well, I'm a petty good fellow. I don't beat my wife; I pay my debts!" I cannot say to them what I'm thinking---"Hell is populated with 'pretty good fellows'. All not beating your wife and paying you debts will do is keep you out of jail, maybe."