LOOKING UP: Inconvenient truths about us mean magnificent things
about God  Rules were made to be broken — sort of.  God's
standard is high. In Galatians 3, Paul builds a strong case
showing how you and I have no hope of ever being good enough for
God. It's just not possible. No amount of holiness or piety or
good works you or I could ever do will earn God's favor or grace
or generosity or whatever it is you want from him.  So why does
the Bible have so many rules?  In the 12th century, a Jewish
scholar named Maimonides identified 613 commands in the first
five books of the Bible alone.  To make matters worse, Jesus
said that even fantasizing about breaking one of these commands
constituted actually breaking them. (Matthew 5:21-48) James adds
that even if you were to keep every other command, but broke
only a single point, God would consider it the same as breaking
the whole thing. The murderer is not better than the thief. The
thief is not better than the liar. Sinners are sinners, and
there is nothing you o