We cannot save ourselves.
Thoughts on God's Amazing Grace.
Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:31-33)
We’re in trouble already, if we think God owes us anything.
People say, “But I never murdered anyone, I’m a good person.” “I never stole anything, I never slept with another man’s wife.”
But Jesus says this:
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
And God looks at the heart, not the outward deeds:
“Do you still not understand?” Jesus asked. “Do you not yet realise that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.” (Matthew 15:16-20)
Every one of us is inevitably heading into eternity, where we will either have eternal life with God, or eternal suffering outside of God’s presence.
The only way to be sure that we have eternal life is to come to Jesus and ask Jesus to save us.
While we still have any thought or even a suspicion that we can do it ourselves, that we can be good enough or that any of our good deeds can please God or that there is any way we can be righteous enough to please God, we are in trouble.
Committing things into God’s hands never works - we always take it back. Trying to be loving never works. We always fail on our own. Trying to be spiritual never works - we can never be spiritual enough. Good works cannot save us.
The only thing any of us can do that helps is to give up on ourselves, on our own ability to earn our salvation.
For every single one of us is the king of the army in the parable above that is soon going to come up against a king who has a much stronger army. God is much stronger than we are, in the realm of goodness and perfection, and we can’t beat him, we can’t outsmart him, for our sins outweigh anything good we’ve ever tried to do and failed, and He alone is good.
Indeed, Jesus showed His goodness and righteousness by dying on the cross while we were still sinners.
But we can give up our pride and our self-will, which is everything we have really, and come to Jesus and ask for salvation, which is the “rest” of God that Jesus gives; peace with God, through Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf to take away our sins, which is the only way that sins can be taken away.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
A timely reminder...as I contemplate retiring so I can focus on what is coming down the pike and try and
figure out what is best to do, where is best to live, what to do? I need to pray more and all day and hope that God will hear my prayer.
Thank you for this.
This article reminds of the Tower of Babel, a cautionary tale about attempts to become like God.
The builders of Babel weren’t just building an ancient skyscraper. They were attempting to supersede the glory of God with works of their own. And in doing so, they had ceased to be cultivators of God’s creation and instead made themselves gods of their own. Today many people place their trust in technology, government, and even money. These things can become the gods of one’s life in place of God if we aren’t careful. Government or Technology then becomes an alternate religion where man focuses on progress or what politicians are telling us over submission to the King of Kings.
God, however, was clear about His role. “You shall have no other gods before me,”
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.