IS 99% GOOD ENOUGH?
Living Stones Series: First Published in All Around Old Bridge Publication – April 2020, Pastor Lloyd Pulley
Recently a lady sitting next to me on a trip back from Phoenix was struggling with her airplane monitor. So I helped her and she was very thankful and gave me a little gift which started a conversation. She found out I was a pastor and she was very complimentary about how I must help people, counsel them, hear their troubles and listen to all their problems. She expressed her appreciation for pastors and how we help others. She mentioned how she loves people, and loves to be helpful and nice to people. It made me think and converse with her about the difference between Christianity and mere humanitarianism.
The real message of Christianity is about the cross! Jesus’ amazing teaching to His disciples is wonderful. But that instruction is toward those who’ve already believed for the most part. However, what He did by being the sacrificial lamb of God; brutally treated, beaten and eventually killed for the sin of the world is essential. Christianity revolves all of its tenets of belief around the value of that death on the cross as payment for our sin. This stands in stark contrast to the most common and strongly held religious belief in the world: that if you're basically a good person you'll be okay and God will accept you.
If you think being a good person is enough to get to heaven then ask yourself, "How good do I have to be?" Is this a grade on the curve? Is this being better than most? What if you’re 99% good, is that good enough? Imagine if we measured that in business. If we accepted 99%, we’d see hundreds of thousands of airline takeoffs and landings end in disaster each year. If we accepted 99%, millions of pieces of mail would be mishandled every hour. 99% would mean over 700 newborn babies would be given to the wrong parents every day. We couldn’t possibly accept a 99% rate of perfection in many areas. An even more personal example would be if your spouse came back from a business trip and said, "You’d be so proud of me, because I am 99% faithful to you when I'm away on these trips." Would that work for you?
Well, yes of course that's pretty crazy! None of us would accept that. So why do we naturally think God will be just fine with the best we can do. Who decided that it’s reasonable to think that despite His perfection, He would allow sin in His presence and would be ok with our 99%; as if we could even give 99%? The Bible is clear that He cannot accept our best. Cain is the first illustration of that. Plus, if we’re trying our best to be good to be accepted by God we’d never be able to do enough and that’ll just lead to great frustration.
The good news is that God has provided for us through the cross, through the very death of Jesus, His Son. The Bible tells us that Jesus’ sacrifice pays and covers our sin. And that belief in what He has done for us is what saves us; because now we are accepting God's gift of salvation.
Now this does not mean that we don't try to do good. But the good of a Christian comes from a relationship with God, not in order to establish a relationship with Him. Christians certainly do good in our community. We have a food pantry. We have a ministry helping those struggling to get free from addictions, an adoption and foster care ministry, a pro-life ministry, a prison ministry and many more. Our Medical Missions team goes to many parts of very difficult areas of the world and provides medical care, including at refugee camps where people cannot get medical treatment. And we have many other ministries that help our hurting neighbors and those beyond our borders.
But that all comes as a result of experiencing the love of God and the forgiveness of God. We don't do these things in order to get to heaven or to prove to God that we are worthy to be with Him. We do these things out of profound love and thankfulness for what God has done for us. That's our real message: it's what God has done for us. We tie in the spiritual truth with all of our humanitarian aid.
Recently, we had hundreds of people gather to put together some gifts for all the neighbors in our town. Young, old, parents and children compiled materials to distribute to many homes in Old Bridge and in the future the rest of Old Bridge and beyond. At the time of this writing there may be some adjustments due to the coronavirus pandemic. Just as we are concerned for our neighbors physical wellbeing with this looming crisis, we are always concerned that everyone would take a closer look at what the gospel is and what the real message of the Bible is for their spiritual wellbeing.
If you are basically a good person you will make a wonderful neighbor, parent, friend etc…on the human level. But before a perfect God I am afraid you will miss Heaven completely. We must humble ourselves to believe and receive that what Jesus did for us on the cross meets that 100% percent requirement of God. Though He requires what we cannot perform, He also provides what we cannot fulfill, because He is not only perfectly just; but out of love and mercy toward us He sent us the very best. We invite you to our Easter Sunday Service to learn more about Him.