But…My Good Outweighs My Bad!

By Ron Livesay

During this shutdown, when most churches are not meeting, many are having worship services at home. This past weekend, Janet and I met a block away with our son, his wife, and their three children. We had prayer, singing, Scripture reading, and a sermon from the Internet by John MacArthur.

The sermon again reminded me of a concept I have presented several times while teaching Sunday school. The common thread that runs through all false religion is the idea that human beings can do enough good to get to Heaven. This thread comes in many forms, usually having to do with completing a number of requirements on a list to prove to God that one is worthy of salvation. It is often summed up like this:  “Someday I will stand in the final judgment, and God will weigh my good against my bad. If my bad outweighs my good, I will be in trouble, but if my good outweighs my bad, God will let me into Heaven. I’m sure it will all be okay, because God is loving and I’m a good person.”

This is a very dangerous idea with eternal consequences. It makes some very false assumptions.

First of all, It assumes that humans can do good things in the eyes of God. Martin Luther said, “The most damnable and pernicious heresy that has ever plagued the mind of man is that somehow he can make himself good enough to deserve to live forever with an all-holy God.” Click here for source.

This idea ignores the fact that, while God is loving, so much so that He sent His Son to earth to be the atoning sacrifice for sin and to rise from the dead to defeat sin and death forever, He is also holy and righteous. 

“Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor” (Habakkuk 1:13, NASB).

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6, NASB).

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:6-8, NASB).

This idea that my good can outweigh my bad totally ignores the insidious nature of sin. We were born in sin, and our natural bent is toward sinning. We cannot possibly overcome that in our own strength.

Second, this idea assumes that our alleged “good” can somehow outweigh our bad. Aside from the fact that even our “good” is “bad” in the eyes of God, this assumption is totally incorrect. It only takes one sin to condemn us in the eyes of God, and there is no human, other than our Savior, who has lived a sinless life. “…there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20, NASB).

This reality can be easily illustrated. Suppose a man is accused of murder and decides his best course of action is to plead guilty and then try to reason with the judge. Imagine the following dialogue:

Judge:  “You are accused of one count of first-degree murder. How do you plead?”

The Accused:  “Your Honor, I plead guilty to this one count, but I have some other facts to present that should prevent any punishment for my actions.”

Judge:  “You have entered a plea of ‘guilty’ to one count of first-degree murder, but I will hear your additional facts. This should be interesting.”

The Accused:  “Well, Your Honor, it’s like this. I did kill one man. However, in comparison to the total population, one individual is not even a ‘drop in the bucket.’  There are dozens of people who live on my block, hundreds of people who live in my neighborhood, thousands of people in my town, hundreds of thousands in my county, millions in my state, hundreds of millions in the whole country, and billions in the world. Just look at all the people I didn’t kill. Look at all my good deeds. I did not kill you. I didn’t kill anyone else present in this courtroom. As a matter of fact, I did billions of good deeds by not killing anyone else in the whole world. Surely my one little mistake is forgivable and hardly even noticeable. It certainly is not significant in the grand scheme of things. It should be obvious that my good deeds outweigh my bad.”

Judge:  “Your argument is not compelling. You are guilty of one count of first-degree murder, and you will be sentenced accordingly.”

No right-thinking person would expect the judge to rule any differently based on the argument the accused presented. It is interesting that almost everyone would expect a fallible human being to understand clearly and make a correct ruling in such a case, yet many of the same people would expect the infallible God of the universe to buy into such an argument. Who could legitimately stand before God and foolishly believe that salvation is based on “my good outweighs my bad?” The obvious answer is that no one will be able to make such an argument. 

All of us are sinners, and any and all sin is an offense to a holy God. He does not, and cannot, save us by His love. Instead, His great love motivated Him to provide a way to save us by His grace.

It is clear that the human race stands condemned before God:  “…that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19, NKJV).

One sin is enough to condemn someone, and it is obvious from Scripture (Romans 3:23) and from experience, that all people are sinners. Breaking even one part of God’s Law is breaking all of God’s law, just like breaking one link in a chain is breaking the chain. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10, NASB).

God’s holy standard is Himself and His own righteousness and perfection.  “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48, NASB).

If God’s standard is so high, how can anyone be saved? Clearly, none of us can be saved on our own. No matter how good we think we are, we fall far short of God’s holy, perfect standard. We don’t even come close. Our only hope is to “throw ourselves on the mercy of the court” by coming to Christ by faith for His mercy and grace. Only then can we become perfect, as His perfect righteousness is applied to us, because our sin was applied to Him. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NASB).

He took what we deserved so we could have what He deserves. There is no better deal available anywhere in the universe.