February 3 - Do I really need a savior? Can’t I just be good?

You’re listening to OKY. The place where we discuss what we believe and why we believe it to be true! Today we will ask the discussing - Can I just be good? Do I need a savior or can I just be good enough on my own?

 

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

 

What is the glory of God? 

 

And how do we fall short of it? Aren’t we made in his image? 

 

Ok, let me address the second part of this first. Please know that we were made in the image of God. That is often misunderstood to mean we are “like” God. We are not like him, we simply reflect him. We can carry his characteristics, but we are no way like him. Let me give you a few simple ways to deduce that. 

 

God is eternal - he always has been and always will be. Have you always been? 

God is eternal - The other side of this is that God is able to be in all time and space at the same time. Can you do that? I wish! My girls are on the other side of the country right now, and I so miss them that I would give anything to be with them right now. 

 

Or how about his, God is omniscient - he is all knowing. . . Are you able to know all things? I would’t want to if I’m honest with you! 

 

But there are so many ways to prove that we are not LIKE God. We are made in his image! And that’s not the constellation prize. That’s the beauty of his design. He made us to reflect his image. So while he made us in his image, we are not like him. . . He is Holy. Which is a word I’ll explain in a minute. Bur first, let’s go back to that verse that Paul wrote. 

 

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

 

Well what is the glory of God?

The word glory, is the workings of. . the glory of God is the way he operates and functions. It’s much more practical than some mystical cloud that just surrounds God. His glory is his perfection and ability to only give off right-ness. . . Which, if you go back to the conversations from last week, you know that he is a God of order. He created order in the middle of the chaos. His glory, is his ability to work all things for his good, because he aligns things into the proper order. 

 

What’s the problem with that? 

 

You and I like disorder. 

 

So let’s go back to the word Holy for a moment. The word Holy means to be set apart. And what is God set apart from? 

 

Sin - or the rebellion against the order God designed. 

 

For God to remain Holy - or set apart from the disorder of rebellion, he cannot allow anything unholy to be near him. By definition, this would prevent him from being separated from sin. So when you and I carry sin with us, it is not a matter of just being good. We carry something that in opposition to God’s ability to be separate from sin. 

 

So what do we do? 

 

We have to have reparations for this sin. We can’t get rid of this on our own or by just being good. Once we rebel against God’s plan, there is no way of taking that back. We carry the chaotic darkness of rebellion in us. We have to pay the price for this. As we talked about yesterday, the only way to pay that price is death. It doesn’t go away on its own. So anyone who has ever rebelled against God’s plan in any way - whether intentionally or unintentionally - has sinned and falls short of God’s glory - or his way of doing things. This is why Paul says, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

 

What does it mean to become the righteousness of God? We were made right with him. And, We were set in the right as well - in light of our rebellion and desire to do things wrong - or out of order - sin. 

 

It’s like this. . . 

 

If you have contaminated water in a bottle, it doesn’t matter how much clean water you add to it. It all will all become contaminated. You have to clean the water of the contamination so that it doesn’t keep destroying the water you add to it. 

 

The same with sin. 

 

It doesn’t matter how good you are or how many good deeds you do. Until the sin is paid for, you are not made righteous. So you need to be saved from that sin in order to be made right again. 

 

But the good news, Jesus came to take on that sin, in order to make you righteous again! So accept the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord so that you can be made right!!!!

 

Super excited, tomorrow I will be answering a listeners question that was sent to me about predestination vs. free will. So don’t forget to let me know what you want to hear on this podcast so I can get to it! But for now, that’s all the time that we have for today. I love you, and God bless!