The Perfect Imperfect
You’re not good enough. These words stir immediate emotion when we hear them. Imagine yourself at a practice hearing the coach yell these words. You experience a flood of emotion. First, you feel the deep discouragement of the young athlete and then driving disdain toward the coach for such a calloused approach. It’s hard to envision a time when these words would ever be appropriate. They’re certainly unacceptable coming from spouses, management, parents, or teachers. The only person we may excuse for this would be Simon Cowell. Could there be, however, a time when these words are gracious?
Imagine now a loving person saying this to someone. We would quickly recognize that this message is accompanied by additional details because of the helpful intention. We find this in the Gospel.
Consider what we read in James 2:10, Romans 3:23, 1 Peter 1:16, and Galatians 5:19-21. We find that even one sin is enough to condemn a person before God. We find as well that we’ve all sinned. This is a problem because we know that we must be holy as God is holy if we are to enjoy Heaven. We now have a dilemma. If we are all sinners and no sinner will enter Heaven, how can we escape the inevitable? This is where we see grace working in God’s declaration that we are not good enough.
God communicates to us through His Word that we are sinners. We will never be good enough to experience His eternal blessings and presence. Yet, this is where additional details are provided. God, knowing this about us, has provided for our need in Christ Jesus. Paul writes, in Philippians chapter three, that all of his effort and works were worthless. Though the religious community he was a part of would quickly celebrate his accomplishments and approach to life, he was still lost apart from Christ. He goes on to say, however, that in spite of his sin God provided what he needed. Consider Paul’s words, ‘. . . that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith . . .’ Paul knew Christ in salvation not through his own righteousness or goodness, but rather through the gift of righteousness that God provided. Now that is grace!
You’re not good enough, but by God’s grace through Jesus Christ you are made good enough. You’re now able to experience the eternal blessings and presence of God. God forgives you of all your sins and declares you righteous through faith. You see, there is a time when these words can be gracious and the emotions that follow are made up of joy.