God's Standard
What is the standard that God sets? If you wanted to save yourself by good deeds, do you know how good you would have to be?
Jesus said: Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). God has only one standard - PERFECTION! A perfect God, in a perfect heaven, requires perfection. But imperfect man does not meet the standard and so he cannot save himself. With such a high standard, no one can save himself, for God also says, Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10). It just takes one sin to make us guilty.
In exams, there is a pass grade. God has a pass grade in His class of life. Some of us may get 5%, others 20%, but it makes no difference, we all fail! Why? God’s pass grade is 100% - PERFECTION. Because of sin no one can pass on their own performance. God gave His Laws in the Bible to show man His high standards, and in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus showed that God requires perfection in our heart attitudes as well as in our actions. Cursed is every one who does not continue to do all the things that are written in the book of the law (Galatians 3:10).
It's as impossible to reach heaven by our own efforts as it is to swim the Atlantic! Some may get further than others but all would fall a long way short of the goal. So, even though some people are better than others, we all fall short of God's standard. The gulf between us and heaven’s glory is far greater than the Atlantic Ocean.
Do you now see why it is impossible for us to save ourselves? In spite of our sin, however... GOD IS MERCIFUL and therefore does not want to punish us. This is because: God is love (1 John 4:8). He says: I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). He wants us all to go to heaven.
But the same Bible that tells us that God loves us also tells us that GOD IS JUST, therefore He must punish sin. He says: I will by no means clear the guilty (Exodus 34:7) and The soul who sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4). We all believe in justice. If a criminal robs and murders someone, then we know he should be punished. We would be outraged if he were let off. He must pay the penalty for his actions. Just as a human judge must pronounce sentence upon a criminal, so God also must punish the guilty. God cannot turn a blind eye to sin. If a human judge is required to punish law-breakers because of justice, how much more must the Just and Holy Judge of the universe punish every sin? Otherwise God would be unjust. Therefore all men are under the sentence of death.
We have a major problem - we have all sinned and the penalty for sin is eternal death. We need forgiveness so that we can have a right relationship with God. On the one hand, God loves us and does not want to punish us - He wants us to go to heaven; on the other hand He is Just and must punish our sin, which would mean us going to hell.
God solved this problem for us in the person of JESUS CHRIST. Who exactly would you say Jesus Christ is? A good man, a great teacher, a prophet perhaps? The Bible tells us He is all these things but also so much more. He is God - the Creator of the whole universe. He created you. He also became a man and lived among us. Jesus Christ is the unique God-Man, both fully God and fully man. In the beginning was the Word (JESUS) and the Word (JESUS) was with God and the Word was God ...and the Word (JESUS) became flesh (a man) and dwelt among us (John 1:1,14). So you see, He was and is God!
2000 years ago, God became a man, clothing Himself in human flesh. God loved us so much that He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to come and save us from our sin and from hell and give us life. As a man, Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and did many miracles that proved He was the Son of God, but it is what He did in His death that is of supreme importance.
