Being Pretty Good

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10).

I've never forgotten the lovely young woman who felt she was heaven-bound because she was "pretty good." After all, she didn't cheat, steal, or kill. She tried to be a good wife and mother and do the right thing. She felt she had no need to make any changes, accept Christ as her Savior, or be baptized. She felt she was doing just fine the way she was.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe and mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone (Matthew 23:23 and see 13-34).

This is much the way most of the Pharisees felt in Jesus' time. They didn't feel as if they needed to make any changes, because they felt righteous. After all, they did their best to keep all the laws and to make sure other Jews did the same. But Jesus didn't see it that way. He saw their cold, unforgiving hearts that needed a strong dose of love and compassion. They were adhering to following less important laws and missing what was most important.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

We should never compare ourselves to others. That's not the stick by which we'll be measured. We are to compare ourselves to God, and by that standard, we'll always come up short. However, when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we get to trade our sinfulness for His righteousness, and then we can stand before God blameless. We can never be good enough, except through Jesus.

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