“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”
Romans 3:20
Did you notice the words I highlighted for you yesterday?
Here they are again:
Our righteousness before Him is as filthy rags.
Isaiah 64:6
For I tell you, unless your righteousness greatly exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”
Mathew 5:20
There it is stated clearly. Now what do we do? Anything I do to be good, to keep the law, to get in God’s good books is doomed to failure. Many think life is a matter of doing good and doing bad and in the end as long as the good outweighs the bad then God will accept me. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! God’s ultimate standard is too high for any of us to achieve. Remember yesterday’s verse – unless your righteousness greatly exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven! It is a theme of Scripture. Let me write it again for you with emphasis and underlining so you don’t miss it. “Our righteousness before Him is as filthy rags . . . unless your righteousness greatly exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”
Now for those of you thinking at this moment, oh”, ok! So I have to do better than the scribes and Pharisees, you know I think I could do that.” They were a bag bunch of hypocrites.” Don’t even go there! The message is you can’t. It will never be acceptable to God, who requires perfection. The key elements above are:
our righteousness (yours and mine – not God’s) and your righteousness.
You are not going to make it on your own mate. You are going to need help on this one. Some will turn anywhere and everywhere to not have to ask for help. Their sense of independence and being self made is so strong they want to go it alone. This is bad news for them. Many see Christianity as a crutch to prop up the weak. I used to see Christians that way. I have news for you. The Bible has news for you and its all good news. That is why it is called the Gospel. Gospel comes from the Old English, gōd spell meaning “good news”. [Goodbye in old Anglo-Saxon was an abbreviated form of ‘God be with ye’] There is a way out of this dilemma we are all in. it is indeed GOOD NEWS. The kind of news you would want to shout from the roof tops.
The best news you will hear all of your life will be announced tomorrow in the Bible Gem. We will leave the bad news behind tomorrow and hear good news. Don’t you want that sometimes? Do you get tired of bad news on TV or newspapers all that time. Well here is a chance to hear the good news. But for the good news to be the best it can be we have to know the bad news first. We have to know our true situation before it can be made better. That is why Paul has organised “his gospel” in this way.
The 10 Commandments/ the law is like a mirror. It tells you how dirty you are but it can’t wash you clean!!
David Pawson
A Doctor can’t persuade someone to have an operation until he knows he is sick.
Anon