White hats and black hats

There is no one who is righteous, not a single person (Romans 3:10).

When you watch an old Western, you can usually tell the good guys from the bad guys by the hats they wore.  Good guys sported white hats; bad guys wore black ones. 

If someone wears a black hat, you know not to trust him.  If a guy wears a white hat, you can take his promises to the bank.  A black hat will cheat at cards; a white hat will loan you his horse.  A black hat might shoot you in the back if you’re not careful; a white hat will stand by your side, gun in hand, to defend your life even if it costs him his own.

Good guys and bad guys—if only life were that simple.  We frequently wonder who we can trust.  We get ambushed by people who seemed to be okay.  We wish we knew who to look out for—then we could drop the varmint before he got a bead on us. We’d really like to know who the white hats are, so we could let down our guard and relax in their company.

But people don’t tip us off by wearing the right-colored hat.  Some are outlaws who hide behind a false face of respectability.  Others are scoundrels, but in their own minds they see themselves as just doing what needs doing in order to get by.  Very few bad guys would wear a black hat openly and proudly. 

But where are the white hats?  When you shuck right down to the cob, there are none.  No one is a good guy, not from where God is sitting.  All of us are sinners—that makes us black hats, bad guys.  We eye up the cowboy or saloon girl, even though we’re married.  We’re willing to bend and break the rules if we can get away with it, just like rustlers and cardsharps.  We lose our tempers and get into fights like the participants in a barroom brawl.  We cower behind shuttered windows when doing the right thing means standing bravely in the middle of the street at high noon. 

None of us is good enough to deserve a white hat.  The only true hero in town is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He is the tough-as-nails Lawman with a heart of gold beating underneath His badge of office.  He alone can keep us safe, and He sacrificed His own life to do it.