In her book,
Sticking Up for What I Believe, Gwendolyn Mitchell Diaz answers questions
that teenagers ask about God and life. Question #7 is “Isn’t living a good
life good enough?” Many people falsely believe that humanity is generally
good, and if you try your best, God will just have to let you in won’t He?
Listen to her response: “Any standard we try to apply to determine a cutoff
point that should allow us access into heaven turns out to be arbitrary and
opinionated. Any effort we make to live up to our standards are based on pride
in our own abilities. Instead of acknowledging that we cannot live a good enough
life on our own, we devise all kinds of methods and rituals to get us there”
(p. 110).
The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that we all fall short of God’s glory, but
He has met the standard through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God offers the righteousness of His son to us by grace through faith. That truly
is an amazing grace!
–Preaching September/October 2002
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