At the risk of stirring up some ire, let me mention a football gripe. Football supporters will be all too aware of the great controversy about the use of Video Assistant Referees who are using video technology to look for and to adjudicate on incidents during a match. It's proving contentious, with the calling of offsides and handballs being particularly controversial interventions. Without divulging my own football allegiance, suffice to say that the team I support has recently been on the receiving end of some highly controversial VAR decisions... We supporters of the team know that they are in fact 'dodgy and wrong decisions', though everyone else will say, 'tough, get over it, you should see the decisions my team gets!' Fans of rugby and cricket can justifiably look on with a degree of smugness at the generally helpful way such technology is used in those sports and smile as rival football fans have yet another reason to argue with each other.

The thing is rules are rules. If the technology shows a player's arm or toe is offside, even by an inch, then according to the rules it's offside. The law about staying onside has been broken, the penalty for being offside is enacted - a freekick is given to the other side, perhaps a goal has to be disallowed, may be the result a match hinges on the decision, even a cup final or a championship might be lost as a result. The consequences of being shown to have strayed over that line drawn on the computer screen can be significant. It doesn't matter whether it's by a inch or a mile, offside is offside, the law has been broken, the penalty applies.

Liverpool's legendary manager Bill Shankly once said, "Somebody said that football's a matter of life and death to you, I said 'listen, it's more important than that'." (He's usually misunderstood, by the way, for in context it seems he spoke with regret about the way his devotion to the sport had affected his family). For some though, it really does seem that football (or many other things on offer in this world) is a matter of life or death. At the risk of drawing more ire, football really is only a game. In the end, it doesn't matter much. 

Which brings me to my point. God does matter and very much. He is important. We owe our existence to him. There are rules that He sets by which we should live. First and foremost, to love Him with everything that we are, secondly to love our neighbours as ourselves and then, in more detail, things like not lying but being truthful, not stealing but living honestly and so on. Our problem, which is a very real and present problem, is that we break His law constantly. Even if we can persuade ourselves that we are basically very good and have only broken His law by a little bit, just an inch not a mile, then we are still lawbreakers and under the penalty - death and hell. Actually, we don't come close, we are miles offside. Our problem is we are not honest with ourselves about ourselves or about God, though we can be very good at pointing out when others are offside! But God judges perfectly and, unlike football, there's no problem with the rules for God's law is neither flawed or unfair but good and right. There's no disputing, no controversy about this, no need for VAR and replays, everyone can see.

This is why we need Jesus Christ. We cannot rectify our own sins, nor pay the penalty they deserve nor make ourselves right with God. But Jesus can. That's why He came, why He died on the cross and why He calls upon us to put our faith in Him to be saved from sin and death and to be given life eternal instead.