Are you good enough for God?

When I entered high school, my Dad made me a promise:  graduate at the top of your class and I’ll buy you a new car!  He never paid up on his promise. He did not have to because I did not make the condition of his promise.  My Heavenly Father has promised me a home in Heaven.  Am I good enough to own it?  I know the answer to that question. Yes!  There is a place prepared for Jerry, my name is already on the door.   How do I know that?  Because the conditions of God’s promise are fully met by another on my behalf.

Using Abraham as an example, Paul writes - "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Romans 4:20-25, NIV)  God called Abraham and told him that if he would follow Him in faith, He would make him the father of the faithful.  The patriarch trusted God and received the gift of being right with God, completed justified.  That gift was ‘not for him alone, but also for us!’

Prior verses in that chapter talk about the rite of circumcision which marked the sons of Abraham. Many came to trust the rite as being the means of their being right with God.  Keeping Sabbath, eating kosher, and being circumcised turned into a way of measuring goodness.  Their focus shifted from the covenant God made to how well they kept the Law.  And, that remains a common misunderstanding among people today. So many wonder, “Am I good enough for God?  Can I hope for eternal life?”  Gripped by unrelenting guilt they compare themselves with others, hoping that they have done enough – going to church, being baptized, giving to the Church and the poor, being morally upright – to earn their place in God’s family.

Here is what God says: "If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man: Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate. Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score." (Romans 4:4-8, The Message)

I know that there are those who turn God’s amazing promise of justification into a license to live willfully, sinfully, and selfishly. But, their failure does not change the glorious declaration that God has made on our behalf. Justification is a legal term, what God says is true about my standing with Him. There is another term that is about how His declaration is to affect my life – sanctification!  Yes, God makes me right with Him and asks me to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become sanctified, that is, to become a person who lives a holy life.  God’s promise, guaranteed by Jesus’ death and resurrection, is the foundation on which a holy life is built.  When we accept, by faith, what God says is true – we find freedom from guilt, the power of pride and shame are broken, and we gain great assurance.

Here is the word from the Word.  May the Spirit reveal the wonder to our hearts, causing us to dance with joy, to have great hope, to live holy lives.

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Romans 5:1, NKJV)  "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him." (Romans 10:10-12, NKJV)

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And Can It Be

And can it be that I should gain,

An interest in the Savior's blood?

Died He for me who caused His pain

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love, how can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father's throne above,

So free, so infinite His grace.

Emptied Himself of all but love

And bled for Adam's helpless race!

'Tis mercy all immense and free.

For O, my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,

I woke the dungeon flamed with light.

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose went forth and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread,

Jesus and all in Him is mine!

Alive in Him, my living Head,

And clothed in righteousness divine.

Bold I approach th'eternal throne,

And claim the crown through Christ my own!

Charles Wesley | Thomas Campbell

© Words: Public Domain