But I'm a Good Person!

Something was said at Bible study this week that struck a cord in me:

“Jesus allows us to stand on our own merit if we don’t accept him as Savior.”

What merits would I have without the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ! None!

If we set the scene, and visualize ourselves at time of death, when we’re standing before God, how would we argue our merits? How are we going to answer God’s questions? Many people who don’t know God have no idea that they’re going to be judged. Instead they think God (or some divine being) is going to note what good parents they were, how they worked hard and were wonderful providers, how they went to church (maybe) or at least on Easter and Christmas, never murdered or robbed, nor raised a fist against a brother. God will be pleased that they worked their way into heaven, hand us them E ticket and off they go.

But God knows all that we’ve done (or not done), it’s been recorded, and he knows that we have no merits before Him without the blood of Christ to wash away our sins. He also knows that we had encounters with Jesus that we ignored. We were offered the gift of Christ but arrogantly felt we didn’t need Jesus, only our own self sufficient ways. We never concerned ourselves with death or what might happen then (Satan does a good job of helping us forget that we all die), and minded our own business and wished Christians would do the same!

We tend to think death happens to others, the same way in youth that we think old age is never going to happen, and when it does, it's such a betrayal. The world is full of illusions, and the general population is hypnotized by them, putting off for tomorrow or perhaps never, that which is most important. Their salvation. Instead we’re obsessed with staying young, avoiding death at all costs by not enjoying our lives!

But death comes, and when it does, there we stand at the gates of paradise, and maybe we can get a glimpse of it, which will be even more torturous if we can’t get in! A gated community and no pass! We might look around and see what company we have, and think, I’m in...these look like good people. Then it’s our turn, and we make our way to God and suddenly we’re not so sure and we’re terrified. The fears we’re going to feel is crushing and likely drop us to our knees.

God is going to ask a question we might not be prepared to answer: “What did you think of my son, Jesus?”

Truthfully, you didn’t give Jesus much thought, other than at Christmas time, and then, not too seriously, what with all that had to get done that time of year.

You’ve figured out real quick God can read your mind before you speak.

“Did you hear about Him?” he’ll ask, even though he knows you dodged your cousin John every Christmas just so you’d not have to hear about Jesus, or how you were lost and needed salvation.

“Well, yea, I guess I did, but salvation, it sounded weird. My cousin used to say I was lost, but he didn’t have a good argument.”

“If you knew my Word, you’d know my good argument: You’re lost because of your rejection of biblical revelation (Ps. 19:1; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:19, 20). You’re lost because of disobeying your own conscience (Rom. 2:14-16). You’re lost because of your relationship to the world (Eph. 2:2; Jas. 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17). You’re lost because of your relationship to Satan (Mt. 4:8, 9; Jn. 8:42-44; 12:31; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:13; 1 Jn. 3:10; 5:19). And finally, you’re lost because of your relationship to sin (Gen. 2:17; 8:21; Job 14:4; Eccl. 7:20; Jer. 17:19; Mk. 7:20-23; Rom. 5:12; 7:14; Eph. 4:18).

By now you’re slumping, realizing too late that you should have listened to John and opened the Bible he gave you years ago.

God may continue this way: “But you felt you could navigate the world and all its woes alone without the Cross? You felt you didn’t need the privileges of church membership, all the blessings of the new covenant, pardon of sin, favor of God, peace of conscience, the promises of the gospels, and all the riches contained in them, access to the throne of Grace, the comforts of the spirit and the well grounded hope of eternal life?”

You’d never heard it put that way. Maybe if you had you might have considered it more. “But I lead a good life,” you say feebly. “Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Why didn’t you feed Him when he was hungry," God will ask, "or clothe Him when he was cold, or stop and give him a dollar on the street?”

This where we might feel justified in our answer: “I never saw him hungry, or naked, cold or begging! Of course I would have helped Jesus!”

“Whenever you failed to do one of these things to another human being who was being overlooked or ignored, that was Jesus—you failed to help Jesus.”

“Okay, I can see we’re all connected in a metaphysical sense, but I was a good person!” You can hear the desperation in your voice, because you begin to realize you’ll never see cousin John again, or Grandma Parker, or your own daughter who accepted Christ just this past year.

It’s unlikely we’ll get the chance to have such an enlightened conversation with God, instead we’ll be judged, on our “merits alone,” on our “goodness” which will fall short of the Glory of God, and be herded off with all the others who led good lives, separated from those who accepted Christ, to live in damnation and hell forever.

The number one excuse I’ve heard in my walk with Christ is, “I’m a good and person, and a moral person, and I don’t need to believe in Christ.”

Hell and damnation don't resonate with people nowadays--but nether did it in the time of Christ.