I recently heard a statement from a last stage cancer patient, soon dying, that they were a good person and they were going to heaven.
I'm haunted by this.
I know God knows the heart but there must a profession of faith in Christ that He alone meets the requirement that Holy God demands.
Sure, we strive to be sinless.
Sure, we try to do good things.
Those behaviors are good but it is Christ alone that saves our souls from hell.
As a Christ follower, I fail everyday.
The only hope I have is Christ did not fail.
I can never be good enough.
As long as I'm in this carnal body I will be bent toward failure.
Someday I will be in that spiritual body and I will succeed through Christ.
Man is unable to attain the gift of salvation (redeemed, blameless, justified and sanctified) without Christ and His ability to satisfy God's demand.
Do not buy into the lie that your rituals or your goodness will send you to heaven.
Psalm 53:1-3
There Is None Who Does Good
To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
[1] The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
[2] God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
[3] They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
[5] For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, [6] who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Galatians 3:19-26
[19] Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. [20] Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
[21] Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. [22] But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
[23] Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. [24] So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. [25] But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, [26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Galatians 2:16
[16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Romans 3:19-25
[19] Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. [20] For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The Righteousness of God Through Faith
[21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—[22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Lord, help us to see that being a good person is a by product.
The sacrifice of Christ is acceptable to pay our debt to a Holy God who demands a spotless sinless Lamb as payment.
That spotless sinless Lamb is Christ!
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