As a 7 year old, I went to baseball try outs to see if I was good enough to make the team. I waited anxiously for the next few days until I received the welcome news—I made the team.
Almost every religious system teaches its followers that being good enough is the criteria for acceptance by the deity or deities they worship. Unfortunately, many professing Christians or those considering Christianity erroneously operate on this same premise.
Most people think God “grades” people on the curve, believing that if we just do more good than bad then He will accept us.
God’s Word declares the opposite—nobody is good enough to achieve God’s standard of moral perfection. “There is none righteous, not even one…there is none who seeks for God…there is none who does good…” (Romans 3:10-11). Our very best efforts still leave us morally deficient and deserving of His just wrath (Romans 6:23).
If we can’t make it onto God’s team by being good enough in our own efforts, then how is it possible to be right with God? The marvel of Christianity is that deliverance from God’s just punishment and acceptance into His family comes not by our good works, but God’s good grace.
“For by grace you have been saved (from God’s punishment and sin’s power) through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works…” (Ephesians 2:8-9) God’s forgiveness and acceptance of wicked people is a free undeserved gift that is received by faith and not earned by good deeds.
We are not saved because we are good, but because Jesus Christ, God’s morally perfect Son, graciously chose to suffer the punishment we deserved because of our inherent wickedness by dying on the cross in our place (Romans 5:8). If we accept by faith His sacrifice as the penalty we deserve and His resurrection as the proof that He conquered sin and death for us, then we are welcomed into God’s family (John 1:12).
We cannot be saved because of the work we do for God, but because we accept Christ’s work done for us. “But He (Jesus) was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities…by His scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
The only proper response to God’s question, “Why should I let you into my eternal presence?” is, “You shouldn’t.” But if we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again for us, we can claim God’s promise that we’ve been granted eternal life (1 John 5:13).
We aren’t good enough. But God’s grace is enough, and by His grace, believers are on His team.