God: A Metaphor

I'll give you a simple metaphor, that may help convey what I'm trying to say about sin.

I've spoken several times about our Infinite Decision. When we die, we will become Infinite Beings (not the frail temporal things we are now). We'll still be US, we'll still have the same soul, the same memories, the same disposition that we had in life, but we'll have perspective and power like we have never known.

And we'll have to use that perspective and power to decide, based on what we know, whether or not we want to go to Heaven, and submit to God for all time.

That decision is like a Final Exam. Yeah, Comprehensive. Naturally. And it accounts for 100% of your grade for the semester.

Our lifetime is the time given us to study for the final. Our entire lifetime is provided for us to learn what we need to know to pass that ultimate test.

Committing temporal sins (and by this I mean breaking commandments, lying, stealing, even murder) are the metaphorical equivalent of goofing off during that study time. Got it? Committing temporal sins is not, in any way, failing the test. You're not even TAKING the test. There was a time when the rules were different -- when your performance throughout the semester was factored into your grade too. That was a LOT of Fs, though. (Thus Jesus' sacrifice, which changed the grading so only the Final counted against you.)

Your lifetime is the only chance you've got to study for the test. Some people will spend that whole time studying -- and still fail the test, because they've studied the wrong things, or studied in the wrong way, or just don't understand the teacher well enough to answer what he wants. Some people will goof off all semester, then cram the night before, and pass with aces. Most people will spend their whole semester wavering back and forth -- sometimes attending class, sometimes skipping, sometimes doing their homework, occasionally studying -- and then it'll just depend how well they've learned which topics.

Let's say the commandments are a study guide. Or even a practice test. It doesn't matter HOW WELL YOU DO on a practice test, that grade doesn't go in the book. Got it? Temporal acts don't count toward your final grade, good or bad. What matters is, in the time you were given, did you learn the material?

Do you know how to be Infinitely Perfect? It's not out of our reach. In fact, we're born with it, and every layer we add to the world around us hides our own perfection from us. We have all the materials we need to strip away the layers, and see the truth in ourselves. We can't see it anywhere else (not in this form, not really -- we see as through a shadowy mirror), but we can find it in ourselves. We can be confident in our place in Heaven, but we have to learn to look for it, to think the way the teacher thinks. We have to stop having panic attacks about what our grade is going to be, and start really, really, deep-down LEARNING what life is all about. What God is all about. What Man is meant to be.

It matters. It's the only grade that ever really will.