Ray is a man whom in sense embodies us all. I spoke to Ray one hot summer afternoon while taking a break from our jobs. He was physically exhausted and worn out. Ray, a few years back, was into all kinds of bad things and really got his life turned around. I asked him why he looked so fatigued. A weary look crept over his face, and he exhaled that he was trying to make up for past wrong he had done in his life. His works were literally wearing him down.
I think we all can be like that from time to time, we just want to work really hard so we can be presentable. We also can see those who are presentable and then work hard only to just end up in despair because we can't compete. I asked Ray about his faith and he told me he hopes one day he will be good enough to go to heaven. He hopes that one day he can outweigh the drugs and sin of his past with good deeds and a caring heart.
It made sense to me as a non-Christian, we work and then get paid, so we should work for God's love. Working for God's good favor made sense, I mean after all why would he choose to love us if we didn't help. Ray's forthright honesty an assessment of his situation may not be as clear as ours but we all have a little bit of that mentality with God. Ray failed to see that the only way to please God is with faith (Hebrews 11:6). This is because God is holy and trying to bride him with good works is silly. This is why one author in the bible says "Our good deeds are like filthy rags."
God is holy and just, the only way to satisfy his wrath toward our sin is to place our faith in Jesus. This is because Jesus was a sinless substitute who took our punishment for us. He is our shield and protection from God's wrath against our wrong doing. Jesus asks for faith and nothing else when we come to him.
Check out our sermon series - The DNA of Life where Jason dives more into this topic of faith
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| DNA of Life: Faith |
