by Margaret Radisich Sleasman

Created on: November 14, 2009

Good enough for what? I am assuming that the question is if good behavior is good enough to find favor with God and/or to be saved, if that is the question, then the answer is "NO". The Word of God tells us the answer is no in many places, but the pride of man insists that he is good enough to be accepted by God even though he does not spend much time, if any at all, with God.

In Luke 18:9-14, we read about the Pharisee and the publican. The two men went in the temple to pray and the Pharisee thanked God that he was not a sinner like other men and then told God of all his good works. The publican went in; realizing that there was nothing he could do to please God, was repentant for his sin and begged for mercy. The moral of this story is found in verse 14. "I tell you, this man (the publican) went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." This parable reinforces that we cannot ever be good enough for God no matter what we do and that we need a Savior to save us. Back in the day, the Pharisees were very religious and they worked hard at being perfect in their knowledge and their behavior towards the things of God, not very many people in this world can work as hard as they did to live right and keep the law; and yet, they failed miserably to please God with their works - if they could not do it, the average person has no chance.

God is a Holy God and He cannot be anywhere near sin. He is a just God and has to judge sin and send sinners to hell. Since God sees all things, there is nothing that we can do to cover our sins so that we could be accepted by Him. This is why, before man was created, the Triune God had a plan that would allow our sin to be covered and done away with so that we could be accepted into his family and into heaven. This plan had to have a sinless lamb to be sacrificed in the place of sin. All the sin that was ever committed would be placed upon this lamb and the lamb would become sin in our place and die.

There has never been a person born without sin because man has inherited sin from Adam and Eve and it is part of man's DNA. In order to find someone sinless to be this lamb was not going to ever happen, so the Son of God volunteered and said He would be the sacrifice and shed His blood for us; He would become sin and die so that we would not have to. It does not matter what we think about what was done for us - we can believe

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