What Is So Bad about Thinking We Are Good? posted by jwatson on Jul 31, 2015

Good, as a word and as a concept, is open to a comparative and a superlative:  Good…Better…Best.  Perfect is the opposite.  There is no such thing as more perfect or most perfect.  It is either perfect or imperfect.

We, since we are not perfect, are much more comfortable with the “good – better – best” approach.  This is why, when we ask people this spiritual diagnostic question…”Suppose you were to die today and stand before God and He were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into My Heaven?’ what would you say?….the answer we hear the vast majority of times is some variety of a “good works” answer.  “I have lived a good life.”  “I have been a good person.”

Good in compared to what or who?  If I want to convince you that I am a good person, whom will I choose as my point of comparison?  Will I choose Osama bin Laden or Billy Graham?  The Bible instructs us not to compare ourselves with ourselves.  “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise”  (2 Corinthians 10:12).

Not only are we not good enough, we cannot be good enough.  To be good enough to have a vital relationship with the holy God of the Bible, we would have to be perfect.  We are not and we cannot be.  If there were not more to this story, there would be no hope.

But there is.  The Perfect Person arrived on planet earth.  Jesus – this Perfect Person – lived through infancy, adolescence and adulthood without one sin, not a single violation of God’s perfect, holy standard.

This is why, even for the Christian, the motive of attempting to earn God’s favor or approval is such a dangerous motive.  We cannot earn our salvation.  We do not earn God’s favor.   God’s love and acceptance of us is grounded in the Perfect Son of God who gave His life on the cross as a perfect sacrifice to provide us with a perfect righteousness.

That is the perfect solution for our sin problem.  That is the Gospel, the glorious Good News.  That is why Evangelism Explosion is committed to expanding the proclamation of the Gospel around the world.   There is no other solution to the issue of our eternal destination in either heaven or hell.

Every day we, who are imperfect, meet imperfect people…sinners as we are called in the Bible.  These people need to be introduced to the Perfect Jesus and hear about the perfect solution to their imperfect condition.  We are the ones to tell them.  There is no greater joy than to be one imperfect person introducing another imperfect person to Jesus!