There are many people, even some Christians, who buy into the world view that all we have to do is to be good to be saved. They believe that if we act good and do good, God will reward us. It sounds right doesn’t it? After all, if God is truly a just God, and if He is a God of love, would He really allow all these good people to spend eternity in torment? From our world view, it makes perfect sense. But God doesn’t see things from a world view, He sees them from an eternal view.

Some time back my daughter asked her Sunday school class “how do we become righteous”? One of her students raised his hand and answered “by what we do”. She was so disappointed. She is constantly trying to drill into them that righteousness is of God, not of our own efforts. Why, she asked, can’t the kids get it? Why indeed? Why don’t we adults get it?

God’s word says that no matter how good we are, how much we try, or how hard we work, it will never be enough.  We can give our human best but to a holy God, it amounts to nothing more than a pile of dirty rags.

Throughout His word, God tells us how we can obtain Godliness. In his letter to the church at Corinth Paul wrote “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. (1 Corinthians 6:11). And Peter, in his 2nd epistle, reminded the early believers “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed”. (1 Peter 2:24)

Until we understand just how depraved man’s heart is, it’s difficult to appreciate fully the gift we have received through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. 

Spend a few minutes and meditate on all that Jesus has done for you and praise him for His wonderful love.