Your right! Nobody can live the life God intended for us. This is the dilemma, the fork in the road that determines our eternal destiny. Essentially, it comes down to who you trust. Can we save ourselves from hell by trusting our own ability to be perfect, or do we place our trust in God’s solution for us in Jesus. Believing in Jesus is recognizing our desperate need for God’s solution.
In the Bible, Jesus continually confronted people who thought they were right before God on the basis of how good they were. They went to great lengths to look good and appear holy in public. They fooled people but couldn’t fool God. They certainly didn’t think they needed a Savior, especially when comparing themselves to those “sinners”. They trusted in themselves, not in God. This is why Jesus told them that they must be perfect to be right before God. We have to be perfect because God is perfect. Being “relatively good” or “pretty good” will not be good enough.
God knows we can never live up to his ideals. He wants us to throw our hands up in the air and confess, “I can’t do it! I quit! I am a hopeless sinner!” What is so difficult for our human minds to comprehend is that God does not want us to do anything about our dilemma. Because it has already been done for us.
Becoming a Christian isn’t about effort; it’s about trusting Christ despite who we are. In trusting Christ, not only are we made right before God, through the forgiveness of our sins, but we are transformed. He makes us a new creation. By believing in Christ, our attitude changes from trying to do good to responding in thankfulness for what He has already done. The message of the Gospel removes guilt and fills us with hope, peace and confidence. We know with certainty where we stand before God. Our eternal citizenship in heaven is secured.
Believe in Jesus and allow him to love you as you are. He doesn’t stand far off until you make yourself clean. He wraps his arms around you and cleanses you from the inside out. Trust God instead of yourself and receive the new life found only in Christ.
** This question and answer was inspired from the book, “Letters from a Skeptic” by Dr. Gregory A Boyd and Edward K. Boyd, Chariot Victor Publishing, 1994.
I have been telling people that God doesn’t intend for us to be perfect because we arent and we will never mount to his standard is this ok to say
By: Tika on May 31, 2008
at 12:42 am
Thanks for your question Tika.
I think it is important to tell people that God expects perfection. He tell us in Matthew 5:48 to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” He tells this to people who think that outside of faith, they can be righteous or acceptable in God’s sight. So, saying God doesn’t intend for us to be perfect to people who don’t believe in Christ would not be a good thing to say. Our sinfulness needs to be confronted.
For those who have placed their faith in Christ as the substitute for our sins, we are perfect in God’s sight. Our past, present and future sins are covered by the atoning death of Christ. So, when God looks at us, he sees perfection because He sees the Son in us. We are saints in Christ, even though we live in a sinful, corrupted body. By faith, the battle is against sin, not trying to be perfect in order to be approved or acceptable in God’s sight. In thanksgiving for all that God has done for us, we are prompted to live fruit-filled lives as our only motivation. And that really makes a difference!
I hope this helps clarify in what is a difficult question. Have a blessed day.
By: merganzerman on June 2, 2008
at 9:33 pm