Some of our common understandings of right and wrong give us a false sense of comfort in thinking we’re in position to endear ourselves towards God. Doing good and being good seem like the right starting points for gaining His favor and making the ultimate journey to our desired destination of Heaven. But while we find God values our good behavior, we learn through His word that the journey can’t begin through our good works; it must begin through the work His Son, Jesus, did on the Cross. We can’t just start to live right; we have to be placed in position where we can begin to live right.
Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” The value our own good works hold is clear; they don’t measure up to the standard—God’s standard. Through sin, our hearts became corrupted and any good done through a corrupt heart became corrupt as well. If our individual sins weren’t enough, we would be condemned already through the sin of Adam. Through the fall of Adam, sin fell on us all, and we needed someone to pay the price—a sacrifice—a spotless lamb.
John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The only true starting point for righteousness and relationship with God is through Jesus Christ. Jesus was unambiguous in this matter. He didn’t want us guessing about the true path to God; He came right out and told us. If you understand anything about truth, you know that there’s only one truth; just like there’s only one God; just like there’s only one way to God. The all-roads lead-to-God meme that’s become popular in our culture today is blown to pieces by the very words of Jesus Himself.
Ezekiel 36:26: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Since our own righteousness falls short, it was required that we be given new hearts. The heart of stone described here illustrates a heart that’s dead and has no life in it. It’s a heart that is spiritually dead, and thus, can do no good works; it cannot please God. This is why our righteousness prior to Salvation are ‘as filthy rags’. But God gives us the opportunity for new hearts. This new heart is alive unto Him. That’s what a ‘heart of flesh’ describes. It’s a heart that’s now able to please God.
Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” This is why we can’t work for our Salvation: God grants it to us as a gift which we receive by faith. This places us all on the same level; it places us all in the same boat; it places us all at the same starting point. While we are tempted to bring glory to ourselves at times, remembering this humbles us; it helps us to see the proper perspective and bring glory to Him instead.
Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Once saved, we now live our new life through Christ. Through Jesus’ death on the Cross we are crucified with Him. The old man is dead and the new man is now reborn to live the life he was meant to live all along. This new life we live by faith—faith in the Son of God and His completed work on the cross. This all began with love—the Father’s love for us. Nothing in the Kingdom of God works without love. And nothing works in our life until we begin from the proper starting point: Jesus Christ.
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Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Ezekiel 36:26: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”
Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”