One of my favorite quotes comes from Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his classic: “The Gulag Archipelago” (1973).

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? (https://www.azquotes.com/quote/347546)

We dare not judge others, no matter how far off the moral rails they seem to us. You might say, “I’m not that bad.” The apostle Paul thought differently:

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Tim. 1:15–16)

In his doctrinal treatise on justification, he does not reside in the dusty towers of theological academia; he cannot help but see the dilemma of how God could accept and justify those who are manifestly unrighteous. The truth of grace thrills him, yet the reality of his sinfulness renders him unworthy. The Solzhenitsyn line, Paul would say, would reveal the entire content of his heart on one side, with the other being completely void.

But his great mind, inspired by God’s Spirit captures the quandary and the solution, almost as if in one breath.

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Rom. 7:22–25)

The truth of this dilemma springs to one of the greatest, most wonderful lines in all of Scripture:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:1)

Lord, thank You for forgiving me and removing all condemnation from my account. You have moved the line of demarcation and filled the void in me with the righteousness of Christ.