When you look at the standard of thought, speech and behaviour that Jesus Christ requires of his followers, and then you look at yourself, it’s a natural reaction—“I’m just not good enough! I’ll never be good enough!” The good news is, that’s OK! He knows that we’re not good enough.
The Standard of Perfection
God gave to His people Israel a Law, which is known as the Law of Moses, and commanded them to obey it (Deuteronomy 13:4). They did not keep the Law. Even those who tried to weren’t able. When we come to the Bible’s New Testament, we see that God was actually not surprised at this. He knows the standard He set is too high!
‘Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin’ (Romans 3:19–20).
Think about that. The purpose of the Law of Moses was not to make people righteous. It was to show that we’re not capable of living up to God’s standards, so that we will ask for God’s forgiveness and thus begin a relationship with Him.
The letter to the Romans continues: ‘But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (vs. 21–24).
We’re all sinners, we all fall short of God’s standard. But God has made a way by which we can be justified—that is, we can be counted as righteous—by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He died for you and me
(John 3:16). It’s God’s gift, it’s not something we earn.*
In the Gospels we see the Lord Jesus interacting with all kinds of people from all sections of society. The group who were most antagonistic, and with whom he seems to have had the most confrontations, were the scribes and Pharisees. These were the upright, respectable pillars of Jewish society. They prided themselves in keeping the Law of Moses (in their own way), and despised others who did not. They thought they deserved God’s favour.
Jesus diagnosed their problem, on one occasion when they derided him for associating with sinners: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). God does not want self-righteous people. He wants people who know they’re not good enough, because they will appreciate their need for forgiveness.
Infinite Grace
OK, we’re all sinners. But some of us are worse than others. Maybe you’re weighed down by some particular guilt that seems too big to be forgiven? (You’re not alone, many people are.) How do I know that God can forgive even someone like me?
A quick consideration of some of the great people of faith in the Bible shows that there is no limit to God’s forgiveness. Think for example of the apostle Paul, who spent his early career persecuting Christians. Later he wrote,‘The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost’ (1 Timothy 1:15).
Jesus Christ died for you and me, to save us from our sins. So, who are we to say that we’re not good enough to be saved? Just think about it, that’s an awful thing to say. To suggest that you’re too bad for God to forgive, is to suggest that God’s mercy is not good enough.
So, if you’re inclined to think “I’m rubbish, why should God be interested in me?” you just need to make a small adjustment to your attitude. Instead, think “I’m rubbish, why should God be interested in me? But He is!”
** To better understand how the function of the Law was to bring people to Christ, you could read Galatians 3 and Hebrews 10.