Why Grace Changes Everything, Part 3: Forgiven!
We are nowhere near good enough to be acceptable before an absolutely holy God, Pastor Chuck Smith tells us in his book, Why Grace Changes Everything. In this installment, Chuck shares common ways we try to become righteous without Jesus Christ. He also warns us warns us that we cannot be righteous unless Jesus washes away our sins.
One evening I heard a speech by former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger. He told the gathering that his first mistake is mentioned in his autobiography on page 1,159. He also noted it was his last mistake.
If I were to write an autobiography, my first mistake would probably be found in the prologue to the book, if not in the table of contents itself! There is no way I would ever try to stand before God on the basis of my own goodness. It’s not that I am some rotten, morally depraved individual; it’s just that I am nowhere near good enough to be acceptable before an absolutely holy God.
A Dead-End Righteousness
One very common way of trying to become righteous is to define what righteousness is and isn’t, to set up a code, and then to live according to this code. There’s only one problem: No one ever lives up to their own code, so we conjure up a great number of excuses to explain why we fail. The most common is that our failure isn’t really our fault.
If I drop a glass and break it, it isn’t that I am uncoordinated; it’s because someone called me when he shouldn’t have. Others were making too much noise in the other room, so my mistake is really their fault. “Look what you caused me to do!” I say. “You made me do it, so it isn’t my fault.” None of us like to accept blame.
This attitude goes all the way back to Adam. He blamed his failure on Eve. “The woman that You gave to be my wife,” he told God, “it’s her fault that I am the way I am” (Genesis 3:12).
Proverbs declares, There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness (Proverbs 30:12, KJV).
If you think you are a very pure person and yet are not washed from your filthiness, righteousness has evaded you. The Bible says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (1 John 1:8,10, KJV).
Scripture states our problem clearly: All the world [stands] guilty before God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:19, 23).
Whenever we try to establish our righteousness by keeping rules, eventually we are forced to admit we operate on a sliding scale. I will always look morally better to myself than I do to you, and you will always look morally worse to me than you do to yourself. I can look at your life and see all kinds of flaws; but when I look at myself, the few flaws I notice don’t seem so bad.
Even the righteousness I can achieve by what I do is only a sham righteousness. The Bible declares, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6a, KJV).
It’s almost comical to see some people parade around in their rags. They saunter around with their “holier than thou,” gaudy kind of religiosity, with a hyper-spiritual air about them. They talk in whispered tones because they think it sounds holy and righteous. They use King James English because, as we all know, thee’s and thou’s are far more righteous than you’s and your’s. We see them puffed out in their righteousness, strutting around, showing off; and God shakes His head and says, “Filthy rags.”
If my relationship with God depended upon my being righteous and good, I would never make it. I have failed. I have come short of the glory of God. The best that I can manage is when I am having a good day, my biorhythms are right, and everything is really flowing well; “I’m cool. Man, I am really something.” But even on my best days God looks down and says, “Filthy rags.” My best efforts simply aren’t enough.
Trying to keep the law condemns me, for the true law deals with inward attitudes. Back when I labored under this standard of self-righteousness, I found I resented certain things other people were doing. I became bitter. I realized that I hated certain people and that I was jealous and covetous of the things they owned. I noticed I had violated my own code and had wiped out my relationship with God. Nothing was left to do but to start all over again.
Unfortunately, just about the time I would feel as though I were restoring a right relationship with God, something happened. I blew up and down [and] went again. I would be forced to start climbing the ladder of good works once more until I got to the rung where I finally felt I could relate to God. No sooner would I reach that rung, however, than somebody would pull a stupid move on the freeway, and I would yell, “Where did you get your driver’s license, you idiot?” And the whole process would start all over again.
What’s the Standard?
Those who believe that they can be made acceptable to God without Jesus need to deal with some crucial questions. If they believe they can make it to heaven by achieving a certain level of goodness, what standard do they have to live up to? What will God require of them? So many say, “I feel that I am basically a kind and good person and am willing to stand before God on my own merit.”
But these people fail to take into account that God’s standards are different than ours. Jesus showed us God’s requirement for those who would strive for heaven on their own power when He said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48, KJV). The standard for the person who wants to be right with God is nothing short of absolute perfection—not just trying hard or being sincere, but a flawless keeping of all God ever intended for man. Clearly, those who believe they can earn eternal life by their good works have a distorted understanding of the holiness of God and what it means to be right with God.
If we are going to set a standard of righteous conduct, we need to use the one established by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only Person whose life prompted God to say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). To enjoy fellowship with God, we must be as righteous as Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “And when He [the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of … righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more” (John 16:8, 10, KJV).
Jesus’ ascension into heaven was God’s witness to the world about His Son. It is as if He were saying, “This is the righteousness that I will accept in heaven.” Jesus’ life is the only standard of righteousness. If I want to be accepted by God, I must be as righteous as Jesus Christ. The Scriptures show that there is only one kind of righteousness that God will accept: the very righteousness of Christ Himself. So if we want to stand before God on the basis of our own good works, we must live a life that measures up to the goodness we see in Jesus.
But I realize that is impossible. I can’t achieve that kind of righteousness. Jesus Himself said: “I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28, KJV).
He said, “I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22, KJV).
He further said, “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again” (Luke 6:27-30, KJV).
And he commanded us to “love [your] enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again” (Luke 6:35, KJV).
How can anybody be that righteous? I know I can’t. I’ve failed miserably. Does that mean then that I must be forever alienated from God? Is there no way I can ever enjoy fellowship with God?
Do I have to go on in this emptiness, in this frustration, seeking after and reaching out for something I can never attain?
In our next installment, Chuck will show that our hope for forgiveness is not based on our good works but on a form of righteousness that God has provided for us.
Read Part 1 here
Read Part 2 here
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