Things people say: (1) Last week I gave a homeless person money. (2) When I’m able I put some cash in the Ronald McDonald Fund. (3) I carried a person’s bags the other day to help them.
Paul writing to the church in Rome quotes Psalm 53, “They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:12). Paul writes this to people justifying themselves in their works. We can find ourselves comparing our lives to others. Saying or thinking our good deeds are better than others. But the truth is you, me, and the next person, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23
It’s great you do good works. Keep doing good things. But remember it’s not our good works that brings salvation. No matter how many good things you do in this life it won’t get us over the finish line. Jesus is our only justification, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:24-26
Don’t rest in your works. Rest in the finished work of Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
-To Know Jesus. To Live on Mission.