I have a friend who knows that he needs Jesus. Unfortunately, my friend thinks that he has to “clean up his act” before God will accept him. I wish my friend could realize the true nature of God. God is righteous, Holy and just. God is perfect. It’s too bad that my friend doesn’t realize that he can never measure up to God’s standard. The Bible says that there is none righteous, no not one. None of us have kept all of the 10 Commandments in thought, word and deed, so we can can never measure up to God’s standard. The Bible also states that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8). Again, we cannot meet God’s standard on our own.
So I wish my friend could understand that he could never be good enough for salvation. There is no amount of good works or good deeds that we can do to impress God. If salvation was dependent upon us, none of us would ever be saved. Thankfully, salvation is NOT dependent upon us. We don’t have to save ourselves and we can’t save ourselves. We don’t have to clean up our act in order for Jesus to save us. Thanks be to God! Salvation is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9).
Thankfully we don’t have to be good enough for God to save us. Because God is merciful, loving and kind, He sent His Son Jesus Christ (who lived a perfect and sinless life) to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. (Because God is perfect and just, our sins had to be punished). We deserve to be punished for our sins; for our rebellion against God. We deserve eternal punishment in Hell. But Jesus in His great mercy became flesh and blood Himself to save us. We broke God’s Law (the 10 Commandments) and Jesus paid our death penalty fine for us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and He rose again on the third day.
Jesus will meet you wherever you are. You may be lost, lonely or hurting. You may have done some really despicable things in your life. You may have done things you are ashamed of. You may think you are unworthy of love. Whatever you’ve done, it doesn’t matter. Jesus loves you and he suffered and died for you. You don’t have to change anything for Jesus to save you. You just need to ask God to forgive you of your sins and then you need to repent and put your trust in Jesus. Submit yourself to His Lordship.
Then once you have truly repented, through the strength of Jesus Christ, He can help you overcome any addiction, problem, sin, etc. that you have. Your victory over your sin may still be a process and may not change overnight, but with God’s help you can become a new person after you are born again. I hope and pray that my friend will understand this and someday come to the Savior just like he is. If you think you aren’t good enough for God to save you, think again. Come to Jesus just as you are. He can save you and He can help you overcome any problem that you have. For more information on salvation, please go to the tab How to Be Saved.