Day 162 - Psalm 9-16 (No One is Good)
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'"The fool has said in his heart,
"There is no God."
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.
The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one."'
(Psalm 14:1-3)
The Holy Spirit, speaking through His prophet David, declares for all generations to know, that there is not even a single human being who does good. I know that may come as a surprise for you to learn but you see, God's standard of good is way far different from man's standard of good. For us humans, doing good deeds to others such as helping the poor is good but God says,
"But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags..."
(Isaiah 64:6)
Think of the best good deed you can possibly do in your life. Perhaps it is giving up everything you have in order to be a priest or a nun. God says that even that is like filthy rags in His senses. The phrase "filthy rags" in the original Hebrew language meant what would be the equivalent of a used sanitary napkin that women use during their monthly period.
Wow, if God counts our best works as used used Tampax or Modess what hope is there for us? There is absolutely hope for all of us. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Christians in Rome quoted our text above and explained that it referred only to those who are under the Law:
"Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God (Romans 3:19)."
Paul explained that there is one group of people in this world - those who are under the Law. Then, he goes on to talk about the other group of people in this world - those who have been justified (forgiven) by faith. Obviously, those who are under the law are those who have not been forgiven or saved through faith in Christ.
In explaining how a person can be justified by faith, Paul used the example of Abraham by quoting Genesis 15:6: "For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness..." (Romans 4:3-5)
The apostle Paul plainly stated that a person who works for his salvation by trying to obey the Law of God will be judged according to how he fares; whereas, the person who, like Abraham, believes in God through His Son Jesus and His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, that person's faith will be counted or imputed to him as righeousness that God will accept.
There is only one way for sinful man to be made righteous before God, that is, by placing his faith or trust in Jesus Christ as savior. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6)."
You can either continue to work your way to heaven if that's what you've been doing and the Bible says that you will receive your wages for your work which is eternal separation from God because God will not accept your good works which is like used sanitary napkin to Him. Or, you can, like Abraham, trust Christ and His finished work on the cross alone for your salvation and because you did not work for it, it will be counted as a gift to you and imputed or transferred to your behalf as righteousness.
So, what will it be for you, working under the Law for wages that leads to eternal death or, placing you trust in Christ alone for your salvation and receiving the free gift of salvation which Christ has already paid for on the cross with His own flesh and blood? The choice is yours to make today for tomorrow might be too late.
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