In the course of a religious discussion, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I’m good enough. I’m just as good as” this person or that person. In one’s mind, such is justification for one’s lifestyle, that if God is pleased with this person, then surely, He is pleased with me. Sometimes, one will offer a qualification to it, as well. For example, people may say, “I’m good enough because I believe in God.” Yet, believing in God isn’t enough by itself. James wrote, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19). While faith is essential to a relationship with God, a faith that doesn’t respond in obedience isn’t good enough.
Others may say, “I’m good enough, because I have served God in the past.” We know there is no way we can earn our salvation through our own merit. Jesus told the parable of an unworthy slave in Luke 17:7-10 and concluded, “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’“ While past deeds are commendable, the past alone isn’t good enough, as life in Christ is always in the present. We must obey today to please the Lord. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
One may also say, “I’m good enough, because I don’t do all the bad things other people do.” It’s easy to compare ourselves with those we believe to be worse than we are, but no doubt there are others who could do the same with us. Everyone has a sin problem (Romans 3:23), and any sin in which a person persists will condemn him or her before God. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Just because one’s sin list is different than another person’s sin list doesn’t make one good enough before God.
The truth of the matter is we’re not good enough. We can concur with Isaiah, who wrote, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6). We need God’s grace and the cleansing of Christ’s blood to stand acceptably before God. These don’t nullify living a righteous life, but they are what enables us to do so. John said, “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Our walk in the light is essential for the blood of Jesus to continue cleansing us from all sin.
In reality, the child of God should say, “I’m not good enough, but God loves me, and with Christ working in my life, I can grow and mature each day. I can please Him.” This is what Paul believed about himself, about what God was doing in him, though he called himself the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). May we yield our lives to God and live each day in His will for us, so that through Jesus Christ, He will consider us good enough for eternal life. “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning; but He who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18).
