The car detailing business owner walked up to me after cleaning up my car last week, appearing to want to chat. Instead of leaving, I turned around to engage him in conversation.
The subject of religion came up (it happens a lot). Within a few minutes, I asked him what he personally believed about getting into heaven.
He puffed up his chest, declaring, “I’ve always taken pride in this business and the way we treat our customers. I decided years ago to ‘live a good life,’” implying that doing so ought to be “good enough” for God.
Sound familiar?
My well-meaning new friend believed his good deeds and business values earned him a credit balance with God, which he could use to buy a ticket to heaven when it came time to pay up.
But what if he’s wrong? It would be too late to fix the problem.
So, what does count with God? Is being good, good enough for God?
If we consult the Bible, which is God’s word, we can see having good credit doesn’t count. Writing through the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7-9, God put it this way:
“But whatever things were gain to me, these things (my good deeds) I have counted as loss because of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law (my religious devotion), but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith …”
What counts with God is that we are “right” with Christ, not believing we are credited by our own “self-righteousness.” In the Bible, the prophet Isaiah compared our self-righteous deeds to a “filthy garment.”
He goes on to write in Isaiah 64:6 that if we persist in offering such filthy garments to God we will “wither like a leaf, and our wrongdoings, like the wind, (will) take us away.”
Earning good credit with God is backward!
In Galatians 2:8-10 it is written, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
God is all about works, but most people get things backward. They think THEIR works will get them into heaven.
But it is the work of Christ on their behalf that makes admission to heaven possible for sinful humans, as noted in 1 Peter 1:17-19: “… you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
It is only after a person believes Jesus is who He says He is: God’s son sent to serve as a human to be the final sacrifice for our sins so that we can be saved by His grace through faith. When we believe this and decide to surrender our ways in order to allow Christ to be the Lord of our lives, God grants us his Holy Spirit to dwell in our lives, offering salvation, wisdom, correction and, ultimately, love.
Then, our good deeds count with God, but they do not save us. However, they do serve as evidence that we have been saved through the reality of a changed life.
Good deeds, alone, wastes the life of Christ.
In view of the precious life of Jesus, often referred to the Lamb of God who was slain to redeem us, how can anything that we do, however well-intended, come close to comparing? By offering our paltry substitutes of good works to establish our righteousness, aren’t we saying to God what Paul wrote against so pointedly in Galatians 2:20-21:
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law (good deeds), then Christ died needlessly.”
It’s insulting to God to believe, “I don’t need your Son, or His substitutionary death on a cross, I’ll take my chances by being a good person.”
How About You?
If you died tonight and stood before God and He asked you, “Why should I let you into my Heaven?” What would you say to Him? Would it be something like: “Hey God look at how I treated my customers, and all the good deeds I’ve done. You can ignore my sin because I’ve built up good credit.”
Or, would you say, “I don’t deserve a ticket to heaven, but since I believe in Jesus and what he did to wash away my sin, I’ve devoted my life to serving You and others in love. I am empty-handed except for one thing: I come wearing Christ’s righteousness.”
Now that’s the ticket!
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.