Inviting people to church can be at times an enlightening experience. I met a man at Goodwill and decided to give a church card. At first he said that he was not interested, and so understanding that a person has the right to take the card or not, I was about to leave the man at peace. However, he continued to talk about his unity with the Unitarian church. I asked him if this church believed that everyone goes to have no matter what they do. His reply was sure, but he said that he thought I was on the right track.
Maybe I should have walked away. Could I have changed his mind? Was it my job to force him to understand his error? It wasn’t my job to force him, but it was out of concern to tell him that the road he was taking was a wrong one. Explaining the Gospel to him seemed to infuriate him, and from that moment the calm colloquy graduated into a debate, in which I tried to calmly put to rest.
The man, however, wanted nothing to do with the Gospel. His exact words were: “If you do the best you can in the end it’s all that matters.”
Most people, you may be one of them, believe this way of thinking. However God isn’t looking for your best; He’s looking for perfection. No one (not you nor I) are good enough to stand before the Holy God of the Universe. We are sinners. There is no escaping the fact of our fallen nature. Look at the newspapers, watch the news, and look at your life! We all fall short of God demand for pure holiness.
Doing the best you can is a torturous endeavor with not rewards in the end. When it comes to salvation, doing you best is doing your worst. Good deeds are fine. Anyone can perform one, although I am under the opinion that many have secret motives when performing the act. A fool thinks that one can find good by meditating, or reading enough, or helping a lot. No one finds God by good works; but God finds us in our state of depravity.
I stated before that no one is good enough for God. I mean that with all my heart. Again, God wants sinless perfection in order to cross the threshold of the Pearly Gates. Yet, one is of sinless perfection and His name is Jesus Christ. Why do I stress Jesus so much? Because He is the only way to God, He is the only way to Heaven, and He is the only one that satisfies God demands. When Jesus died on the cross all was finished, the law (Ten Commandments and other laws throughout the Bible) were fulfilled by Christ completely without one once of error. The mercy of God, given to us who receives it, is a divine gift whereby a sinful human being(all of us) can have perfection give to us (through Jesus only) so we can be perfect before God.
The fool tries to be good with good deeds; always working to please God, but never coming to the realization that they are heaping up more sin in the process, for to work for God’s acceptance is sin, but to trust in Jesus is righteousness—-the only righteousness you will ever have.
Don’t be a fool. Cease from “doing you best” and give your life to Jesus Christ. Jesus had done all the work to please God. Rest in Jesus.