Have you ever wondered whether or not you will “make it” into the Kingdom of God? Have you wondered whether you are good enough for the Kingdom right now? If you are going to enter the Kingdom, how much better must you become? Perhaps you have not phrased the questions in exactly this way, but these thoughts have gone through the minds of many in God’s Church.
Down through time, devoutly religious people have engaged in a wide variety of practices in attempting to make themselves “good enough.” During the Middle Ages, many sincere people lived lives of incredible asceticism trying to make themselves worthy of heaven. In order to recruit soldiers for the Crusades, to take back Jerusalem from the Arabs, the Roman Catholic Church promised recruits that their going to fight the Muslims would win them absolution from their sins and give them entrance into heaven at death.
Some of the Jews in Jesus’ day also wondered how they could ensure that they were “good enough” to inherit the Kingdom. Jesus, in one of His parables, told the story of the Pharisee who, in prayer, reminded God how much better he was than ordinary people. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other people, and reminded Him that he fasted twice in the week and very carefully paid his tithes (Luke 18:10–12). Surely all of this scrupulous observance, he thought, would make him good enough and guarantee his entrance into God’s Kingdom.
The Apostle Paul commented on the religious zeal of many of the Jews of his day, like this Pharisee, who displayed an attitude that Paul himself had once shared. “For I bear them witness,” he wrote, “ that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:2–3). They strove to make themselves “good enough,” just as have many sincere people throughout the centuries. Yet with all of their effort, they missed the point. Over the years, many, even in the Church of God, have fallen into the same pitfall as the religious Jews of whom Paul wrote.
When we seek to establish our own righteousness—to make ourselves “good enough”—there are two possible results. Some wind up with a smug, self-righteous approach similar to the Pharisee that Jesus described in the parable. They look down on others who just never seem to “get it together” the way they do. They are proud of their careful obedience, and smug in their relationship with God. More commonly, those who are striving to make themselves “good enough” wind up discouraged and overwhelmed, with a sense of their own inadequacy and imperfection. They worry that they will not ever measure up, and therefore will never make it. Such a state of mind can lead one to say, “What’s the use?” or “Why even try?” This eventually leads many to give up and fall by the wayside, rather than continue their journey of the Christian life.
Looking to Abraham and Sarah
The books of Romans and Galatians, where Paul most fully discusses the subject of righteousness by faith, often discuss the example of Abraham and his relationship with God. Many of the Jewish religious leaders felt that circumcision—the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham—was necessary for all men who desired unfettered access to the Creator and entrance into His Kingdom. This ceremony was absolutely necessary for salvation, they declared (Acts 15:1). Paul strongly disagreed with these critics, but did not rely on human ideas and human reasoning to prove them wrong. Rather, he used the authority of Scripture to prove his point. He went to the first book of the Torah, to the account of Abraham in the book of Genesis, to illuminate the true basis of a real relationship with the Creator God.
Paul knew that if his readers truly understood the story of Abraham, and of the relationship that developed between this ancient patriarch and the Creator of the Universe, they would understand the means by which entrance into the Kingdom of God can truly be assured. If they understood the principles illustrated by Abraham’s story, they would finally understand the meaning of righteousness that comes by faith.
What did Abraham do that merited his being made the heir of such amazing promises from God? Did God make His promises to Abraham because he was the first man to become circumcised? Paul thundered emphatically: “No!” God made the promises to Abraham before he became circumcised (Romans 4:9–12). When Abraham was 75 years old, God had told him to leave his homeland and his family, and go to a land that God would show him and afterward give to his descendants. Years before Abraham was circumcised, he had come to trust God. As he came to know God more and more deeply, he trusted him more fully and completely. Paul explained that Abraham’s relationship with God rested on faith, and not on works that Abraham had accomplished.
Still childless at an advanced age, Abraham nevertheless believed God’s promises. Abraham’s relationship with his Creator grew because God was very real to Abraham, who learned to trust God completely (Romans 4:19–21). When Abraham was 99 years old, God appeared to him and proposed a covenant that resulted in the birth of a son and heir within the year. God chose circumcision to be the sign of that covenant. Paul emphasized that Abraham’s relationship with God existed long before circumcision—and was based on faith, not on a specific act or ceremony that he carried out. Paul emphasized that this example contains the key to understanding how we all can have a genuine relationship with our Creator, and be assured of entrance into His Kingdom.
You see, there is a futility involved in human efforts to “be good enough.” As the ancient prophet Isaiah explained in Isaiah 64:6, all of our humanly contrived righteousness is like filthy rags. Our own human efforts can never be good enough! Seven centuries before Paul wrote Romans and Galatians, Isaiah emphasized the importance of the pattern set by both Abraham and Sarah, which true believers were to emulate. He wrote: “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him” (Isaiah 51:1–2). But why would Isaiah instruct those who wished to pursue righteousness to look to Abraham and Sarah? He did so because of their living faith.
The Difference Between Dead Faith and Living Faith
Faith is the basis of true righteousness, as Paul emphasized in Romans and Galatians! But what kind of faith? Was he talking about the “I believe in sweet Jesus” outlook so typical to the approach of many Protestants? Emphatically not! The kind of faith that Paul and the other biblical writers taught is a life-changing faith. This faith is not an empty belief, or a mere profession of pleasant sentiments. It involves a confidence that sets a pattern for a Christian’s life.
Paul explained “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (Romans 10:9–10). If we really believe from the very depth of our being that Jesus Christ is alive and at the right hand of the Father, it will change our whole life! If this does not change our life, then we really do not believe it very deeply.
James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ and the Apostle who presided over the Jerusalem Church, made this same point using different words. He explained in James 2:19–20: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” Faith that does not manifest itself with actions is dead and empty. Such dead faith never saved anyone. James then discussed Abraham’s example. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God” (vv. 21–23).
Abraham ordered his whole life—all his decisions and choices—on his absolute conviction that God was real and that His word was sure. His faith gave him strength to move away from everyone and everything that he knew, it enabled him to wait for decades in anticipation of the inheritance God had promised, and it empowered him to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of his only legitimate son when God instructed him to do so. Abraham followed and obeyed God because he trusted Him. The Eternal God was not only Abraham’s creator—He was his friend!
Isaiah wrote of looking not only to Abraham, but also to Sarah. Peter further developed this theme by showing that Sarah is an example to all Christian women, “as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror” (1 Peter 3:6). Faith in God was the basis of Sarah’s continuing respect for and deference to Abraham. Her example of faith set a pattern for Christian women to emulate. So often, the fear of what might happen paralyzes us, or causes us to panic and take matters into our own hands. In Sarah’s life, faith triumphed over fear. Her submission to Abraham was not based on a conviction that his judgment was always impeccable, but rather in her confidence that God had established the structure of the family. She knew that she could be a submissive wife and trust God to take care of her. Peter told Christian women, in effect, that they are daughters of Sarah if they allow their lives to be governed by faith rather than by fears.
John 11 gives us an example that helps us understand the difference between the righteousness that comes by faith, and that which is merely the result of human efforts at being “good enough.” Christ’s astounding miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead “got people talking” all around Jerusalem, and convinced many that Jesus must indeed be the Messiah prophesied in Scripture. When word of this reached the Pharisees, they arranged a conference with their archrivals, the Sadducees. “Word of this miracle is going to get out and cause everyone to believe that He is the Messiah,” they reasoned, “and this is going to cause great problems with the Romans. They will be upset with all of this talk of a King of the Jews and will come and take away both our place and our nation. We’ve got to do something. In fact, we’ve got to ensure that Jesus of Nazareth dies!”
When it really came down to it, God and His promises seemed remote and unreal to these religious leaders. They were more concerned about the Roman legions, whom they could see, than they were about the invisible Creator. Here were men who prided themselves on being righteous. They certainly did not think that the law had been done away. Yet, when they became frightened about the future, they took matters into their own hands rather than looking to God. Righteousness to them consisted simply of rituals, ceremonies and rules that were to be obeyed meticulously. This was far different from the approach of Abraham, whom they considered their father. Obedience that does not flow from faith will never stand up under stress or the test of time.
True obedience is the result of a genuine relationship with God, and flows from it. Where does that relationship originate? It does not start with us, or with our ability to be “good enough” to earn God’s approval and acceptance. Rather, it starts with God and what He has done for us. He commended his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God took the initiative in our lives, but we must respond to His initiative with living faith. That is what Abraham did when God told him to leave his homeland and family behind for a new land that God would afterwards give to him. Because Abraham truly believed God, he obeyed.
The originators of Rabbinic Judaism in the second and first centuries bc took a far different approach. They sought to establish and ensure righteousness by inventing more rules. Strict adherence to such rules would ensure God’s favor, they reasoned. They developed ever-increasing emphasis on the externals, but in the process the inner relationship with God fell by the wayside. Christ compared many of them to whitewashed tombs, since outwardly they appeared fresh and clean but inwardly they were filled with rot and decay (Matthew 23:27). In the midst of all of their efforts and their striving, they had lost sight of what God was really after (v. 23).
Real righteousness is made possible by what God has done. The Father gave His uniquely begotten Son to pay for our sins by dying in our stead, then raised Him from the dead and restored Him to His right hand in heaven where He serves as our High Priest. He took the initiative in our lives by offering us a slate wiped absolutely clean from the record of our sins and a chance to share life with Him as a member of His very family forever. This represents God’s grace, or His freely offered gifts. However, we must respond to God’s grace with faith. If we trust Him to guide us, to change us and to save us, we will surrender both our life and our will. We will want to fully obey Him and to seek His guidance in every aspect of our lives, because we will be convinced that God is always right! “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). A life regulated by faith is a new life!
You and I can never make ourselves “good enough,” but God can and will if only we will trust Him and surrender to Him. He has already arranged to pay in full our debt of sin, a debt that we could not even begin to work off in a thousand lifetimes! If we really believe what God has done for us, and understand what He offers us, it will change our whole lives by leading us to respond to Him—just as did Abraham, Paul and so many others. Such a living faith will reorder all of our priorities in life, and will produce in us the righteousness that is by faith!