Are you good enough?

Pastor Kevin Lea – July 16, 2004

As explained in answer to the question, “Are you a good person?” only God is good because only God has never sinned and cannot sin.

Some consider they are good enough to be allowed entry into heaven on judgment day. Be honest with yourself if you are one of those people. When you stand before God how will you convince Him that He should let you into heaven?

Imagine going to a job interview where the CEO will be personally questioning you about your answers on the job application. The application gave the conditions for employment with the company. There are 613 company commandments. On the application you are asked about every one of them and you are told that you will not be hired if you have ever violated a single one.

In order to keep the interview short, the CEO will concentrate on only ten of the 613. You know that you have lied in response to many of the questions pertaining to these company commandments but in your own mind you have justified your untruthful answers by the fact that you know that no one could possibly have avoided violating them and think the CEO could not be serious about these unreasonable requirements.

The CEO invites you into his office and begins the questioning with, “Have you ever stolen from anyone, any previous employer, family member or friend. In defining stealing I mean anything, no matter how small, even a paper clip or a pen?”

You squirm for a moment and realize you have already answered, “no” on the application. You know that another company commandment is that you have never lied. If you now admit to the CEO the petty theft you have done in your life, then he will find out that you lied on the application and you won’t be hired. You decide to take your chances and say, “No sir, I am a very honest person and have never stolen anything from anybody.”

He then reaches across the desk to grab a massive book. You can’t help but notice the title, which has your name on it and in bold letters says “Book of Works.” He opens up to a chapter that is titled “Acts of Theft.” You are shocked and horrified as he starts reading account after account of times you have been a thief. How could he know? Who gave him the right to spy on you? After awhile you blurt out, “OK, OK I have stolen, but everybody has.”

The CEO is not impressed and sends you out of the interview after informing you that your application has been denied. You can’t help but notice that there are employees who are working for the company on the other side of the glass in the CEOs office. You can’t believe that these people could all be perfect. How did they get the job?

As you are leaving his office, you muster up enough courage to ask the CEO how these people got the job if the company commandments are impossible for anyone to have adhered to their entire life.

He responds, “They didn’t comply with the commandments.” Incredulously you ask, “Well then, how did they get through the application and interview? “There is only one way to work for my company, and this is it,” he answers. “They didn’t even finish the application. They realized that the company commandments were good and honorable, but that they had failed to live by them. They stopped filling out the application and were honest and humble enough to come and confess their shortcoming. They knew they wanted to work for me and that I was a kind and loving boss. They asked if there were any way to still work for me even though they had failed to comply with our righteous hiring requirements. I told them there was only one way. They all accepted the condition and will be working for me the rest of their lives.”

This is where the analogy must stop and the real truth presented. The CEO is God. The 613 commandments are the laws of the Old Testament. The 10 are the Ten Commandments. No man has ever followed all of them except Jesus, the God/Man.

The law was given to show us how sinful we are, not so that we would think we deserve heaven by doing some of the commandments. We cannot be “good enough.”

Gal 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (NKJ)

Something has to get rid of that book that is sitting on the God’s desk. Each one of the infractions recorded in the book demand a punishment. The punishment for each one, according to the Bible, is death. We all deserve to die and be sent to the lake of fire for every lie, every theft, and every murderous or adulterous thought. But God does not want this to be the outcome of our lives. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). God desires that all would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

As in the story, there is truly only one way to heaven? According to the scriptures we must repent (turn around) from our hostility against God, confess that we are sinners and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But what does it mean to believe on Jesus?

Acts 3:14 "But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 "and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 16 "And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 "But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 "and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, (NKJ)

Acts 26:19 "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 "but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. (NKJ)

God is just and cannot just forgive the debt. Instead, His Son paid the price on our behalf on the cross of Calvary (1 Peter 1:17-19). If we come into the Father’s office and confess that we cannot pass the application of entrance into heaven, and yet want Him to be our God, then He reveals to us that His Son Jesus paid the price for each sin in the Book of our Works, He picks up the book and casts it into the burning sea, never to be recovered, and then asks us to come into heaven to be with Him. Our sins are paid for, forgiven and forever removed from us, never to be brought up again.

My friend, do you realize what a precious gift from God this is? Will you accept it?

According to Revelation 20:11-15 every man and woman will stand before God and either be forgiven because their names are in the book of life, or be judged out of the Book of their Works. Which will it be for you?