WE AREN'T CAPABLE OF FULFILLING GOD'S MORAL STANDARDS

 This sounds absolutely awful, I know, but it’s the truth. To clarify though, first let me describe what I’m not saying: since we can’t possibly live up to God’s perfect moral standards, we should just throw in the towel and quit trying. Since we aren’t ever going to be good enough anyway, why not go all-in on sin, and enjoy the ride? This would be a very easy way to justify the sinning that we all love so much, but would obviously be a very self-defeating moral philosophy.

No, instead what I’m saying is that in the eyes of a Holy God, fallen sinners will never, can never, please Him. We humans love to believe that we are ‘generally good’ – and we may well be – when judging by low human standards. But we can’t compare human standards to God’s standards. As an example: suppose a person spent every day of his life, from morning ‘til night, helping little old ladies across the street. By human standards, this person would be described as ‘saintly’ and ‘selfless’, and there would be some truth to that. But if we use God’s standards, this wouldn’t be the case:

Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. [underlining is mine].

 

While this passage is referring to eating, it would also apply to works. If we do a good deed for someone, and aren’t doing it to acknowledge and glorify God, then we are direct benefactors of that deed. Not unlike the billionaire who loves to donate money to a cause, and then has names plastered all over the project, so that everyone knows he’s responsible for the project. Externally, the deed is certainly good, but beneath the surface, the person is glorifying himself with the act, rather than God.

 

Biblically, the perfect examples of this internal/external contrast would be the Pharisees, and Jesus constantly rebuked them for their hypocrisy. They would pray demonstratively and make sure their works were known far and wide. In fact, they created over 600 of their own laws, just to prove how “good” they were, feeling that if following ten commandments was pleasing to God, then creating 600 more would really impress Him. Only that isn’t the case, because these 600 laws were man-centered and created to glorify themselves, in a failed attempt to morally justify themselves before God.

To the humans around, the Pharisees’ piousness would’ve no doubt been impressive, since they would’ve been judging things purely from an external point of view. God, on the other hand, knows our every thought and motive, so there’s no pulling the wool over His eyes. And this is why Jesus constantly rebuked the Pharisees, and always emphasized that their works would never be good enough to justify themselves before God. In fact, He went much further than that:

 

Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 

Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 

 

So, not only would their 600+ additional laws not win them favor in God’s eyes, but they were also likened to a nicely painted white tomb, which looks clean on the outside, but contained nothing but dead men’s bones internally. Ouch.

But this hypocrisy hardly applies just the Pharisees, it applies to each and every one of us. Supposing that we are proud of ourselves for following God’s commandments prohibiting murder and adultery, and further believe that legalistically, this makes us right with God. Wrong. In the verses below, Jesus tells us that if we’ve ever even been angry with another person, we are equally in danger of judgement as the person guilty of killing someone:

 

Mat 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 

Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment

 

Or, we can feel proud that we’ve stayed true to a spouse and refrained from adultery. Surely this must win us some respect from God? Again, wrong. Jesus tells us that by simply looking at a woman lustfully makes us as guilty of adultery as the person who committed the physical act:

Mat 5:27  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 

Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 

 

Is Jesus telling us this to discourage us, or to inspire hopelessness? No way. He is instead warning us to forget about the absolute foolishness of thinking we can ever stand before the Almighty God and justify ourselves morally. Just to pound the point home, here’s another verse from James:

 

Jas 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 

 

So, hypothetically, even if a person could succeed at fulfilling God’s law to perfection, and yet stumble only one single time in the most minor of ways, she would then be guilty of breaking all of the commandments, and in turn, be morally worthy of hell. This is why the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ is so absolutely imperative:

 

  1Pe 2:23  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 

1Pe 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 

 

So, by all means, we should always try to be good, but don’t ever take that to mean that your own good works can justify you in God’s eyes, because that will never happen. The only we any of us can escape the eternal damnation we rightfully deserve, is by God’s grace via the sacrificial atonement of His Only Begotten Son. Only when God looks at us through the filter of Jesus, can we be pronounced as righteous – solely because of His works, rather than our own. If we instead reject God’s grace and insist on being judged by the law/our good & bad deeds, all of us can know with 100% certainty that hell would be our ultimate destination. Praise God for His incomprehensible mercy and grace!