Each and every person ever born must sooner or later confront the truth of their moral condition. We are the unrighteous at the mercy of a righteous God. God Himself solved our dilemma of unrighteousness by substitutionary atonement – the just for the unjust (Romans 3:26), so His justice is served and our justification is provided for by the cross-work of Christ. We can now have peace with God through His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. All He asks us to do is believe.
Our moral incompetence and decay is washed away through faith in the cross of Christ. Denial is not acceptable, nor is it an excuse. We have all fallen short of God’s perfect standard (Romans 3:23). We continually defile the moral code of God, resulting in alienation from our Creator.
God provides the only answer to the issue of our unrighteousness – His Son on Calvary. With one exception, no living person, past, present, or future, is capable of keeping the Law to God’s perfect standards. It was Christ, and no one else, who kept the moral code, died innocent, and was buried in a tomb where His body remained for three days before He rose in glory.
Humanity sinned, and humanity must pay the penalty. Christ became the God-man, paying for man’s unrighteousness and sin as true God and true humanity. God bailed us out – this is not something anyone else could possibly have accomplished – and now, all we have to do is accept His finished work on the cross. If we say there is something we can do to appease God, we make God a liar and imply that Christ’s work on the cross was done in vain.
Faith in Christ, not self, is the issue. Each member of humanity must confront themselves because Christ confronted sin and death, and Christ won… for us.
Long ago, during a discussion regarding salvation, a friend once said to me, “I’m a good person. I never hurt no one and never stole nothin’. I do my best, I help folks who need it, and I have a good heart. God can’t help but take me to Heaven.” This person winked, smiled and me with beaming ego-arrogance, and concluded with, “God and I have a… happy little agreement. He knows me, knows my heart, knows I’m good enough, and that’s the only salvation I need. And there ain’t no one gonna tell me otherwise, not even you.”
Heartbroken, I left that person in the Lord’s hands and went home, knowing their willful ignorance would be their undoing. Don’t let it be yours.
Believe while you still have the chance to do so.