AUDIT!

I got audited by the Internal Revenue Service! Yup! Your faithful aBeLOGger was flagged, tagged, earmarked, and docketed the other day.

This is not something I recommend for the faint of heart. Nope. Not when they demand huge sums of money from you and even more in fines and penalties. And I mean HUGE!

No way I could have paid that!

Did you know that one day, soon and very soon, we are all going to face an Audit? One that is executed not by the IRS, but by a Divine Accountant, who makes no errors, shreds no emails, misses no deed, and hides no data.

For nothing is hidden
that will not become evident,
nor anything secret that will
not be known and come to light.
Luke 8:17

An Audit is coming soon.

… it is appointed for people to die once
and after this comes judgment.
Hebrews 9:27

You see the problem is our fudging of the numbers of life, i.e., the doing of misdeeds, the uttering of abuses, and thinking of evils—sin.

… the righteous judgment of God,
who will render to each person
according to his deeds.
Romans 2:5–6

But I tell you that
every careless word that people speak,
they shall give an accounting for it
in the day of judgment.
Matthew 12:36

… the Lord comes who will both
bring to light the things
hidden in the darkness and
disclose the motives of hearts;
and then praise will come
to each one from God.
1 Corinthians 4:5

And, as far as sin is concerned, no one passes the Audit.

For all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.
… the wages of sin is death.
Romans 3:23; 6:23

Which means that all of us—every man, woman, and child—is doomed to eternal separation from a holy God.

With the summons of the IRS looming, I immediately contacted my accountant, and signed a power-of-attorney form, authorizing him to act on my behalf; he took over. There was no way I, with my inadequate knowledge of tax laws and was going to go face-to-face with the government.

And there is no way you and I can pay the penalty for sin and survive the divine Audit. Someone else had to take over, like my accountant did.

(Steve, I bet you never got compared with Jesus Christ before!)

But this Someone Else, Jesus Christ, did something unprecedented. He knew I was guilty and paid for my sin—all of it.

He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

A Great Exchange was accomplished. And that payment for sin, made by Jesus Christ, is freely available for all who believe in Him as their only God and Savior who died and rose again.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Free for all who believe, who put their trust in Jesus.

For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

Yup, free. As in “FREE!”

(Unlike Steve!)

You came from heaven to earth, to show the way
From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky
Lord I lift your name on high.
Rick Founds, 1989

Happy Easter!

(And, yes, I passed the IRS audit. Thanks, Steve!)