You Are Not Good Enough
I have good news and bad news. What do you want to hear first? Usually, people say the good news. That has never made a whole lot of sense to me. I want to hear the good news last. I want to end on a positive note. So let’s go against the grain and start with the bad news.
The bad news is that you are not good enough for God. You are not good enough for heaven. You in many ways are not even good enough for the kingdom (church) in the sense that your example is often imperfect and your hypocrisy can at times be more of a detriment to the cause than it is a blessing.
This bad news leaves you in a lost state. There are no good deeds you can perform to make up for the sins you have committed. Sin separates you from God (Isaiah 59:1, 2). And there is not one person who is going to go through adulthood without sinning (Rom.3:23). Not one is righteous (Rom. 3:10). If we keep the entire covenant and yet stumble even in just one aspect we are guilty of the whole thing (James 2:10). So yes there is bad news – I mean really bad news. Your sin disqualifies you from ever being perfect and good enough to enter heaven. You are in a serious bind.
Ok, on with the good news. The good news is that Jesus is good enough. Before he was even born his parents were told to name him Jesus (“Jehovah is salvation”), “…for He will save the people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). He was tempted in every way a human being can be, and yet did not sin (Heb. 4:15). Knowing no sin he became sin on the cross for us and paid the price of death so that the rest of humanity could become the righteousness of God through him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus became the answer to the fact that the human race is not good enough.
At the end of your life, you are going to step on the scale. You are going to be judged, weighed, and examined. And this is a very fearful thing because as we have already stated, you are not good enough, and you are not going to measure up, no matter how good of a person you are in this life.
But what if when it was your turn to step on the scale, Jesus stepped on it for you? What if he was the one who was examined, judged, and weighed? What if he took your place? In that moment, you would understand grace. In that moment, you would be thankful that somebody died so that you could live.
All the time I hear people saying they could never be a Christian because of all of the terrible things they have done. They say they could never be forgiven. They say that they could never be good enough for the church or heaven or God. Well, guess what? Join the club.
But Jesus is good enough. And this is why he came. He came so that we could understand the grace and love and mercy of Jehovah. He came so that we could rise above our limitations as human beings and experience the joy of being children of God. He came, so that our eternal part, the part he made in his image, could reach its potential, and forever live in heaven with him, the Father of us all.
You are not good enough. As long as you are in the flesh you never will be. But Jesus is good enough.
This being the case, isn’t it about time you stop trying to earn your way to heaven? Isn’t it about time you stop with the excuses and feelings of inadequacy? Isn’t it about time for you to come to Jesus?
“But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens” – Hebrews 7:24-26
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