CoffeeWithFather

Matthew 19:
16 Once a man came to Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me concerning what is good?" answered Jesus. "There is only One who is good.
Keep the commandments if you want to enter life."
18 "What commandments?" he asked.
Jesus answered, "Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely;
19 respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself."
20 "I have obeyed all these commandments," the young man replied.
"What else do I need to do?"
Ephesians 2:
4 But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great,
5 that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.
6 In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world.
7 He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.
10 God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.     (Good News Bible)

This man who came to talk with Jesus was evidently bothered by this thought:
"I've done everything I can think of to win God's approval. But I know I haven't reached the place of being perfect yet. There must be something ELSE I can do to prove how super good I am!"

The man understood he hadn't yet reached the place of being able to secure eternal life by doing good.
He told Jesus that he had kept all the commandments from the time he was young.
He had lived an exemplary life. So he couldn't understand why he had this nagging suspicion deep inside that he still had not attained eternal life, even though he had applied all his efforts in that direction!

His perception that he had not yet earned God's approval by his own human perfection, was absolutely correct!
The Apostle Paul explains this to us in his letter to the Ephesian Christians.
The Lord is so full of love for us that even when we were dead in sins and imperfections, HE HIMSELF took care of our inability to access eternal life.
That is how great His love for us is!

We cannot work for eternal life by being sinlessly perfect. That is so, simply because we humans are sinners by nature.
It is by His own favour towards us - favour we cannot earn and do not deserve - that we receive eternal life!
We can do nothing to EARN eternal life. We cannot impress God into giving us His approval.

What God does, is to give us His favour so that we can have enough faith to believe in Jesus our Saviour, who paid the price for our sins, because we are incapable of EARNING God's approval by striving for sinless perfection!
As Paul says: "For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it."

Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
today I lay down every pretence at sinless perfection.
I can never be sinless enough to earn my way into Your approval.
I've always known that deep down, like the man who asked Jesus that question.
I cannot earn Your approval or impress You into drawing me close to You.
But I come today to rest my faith in the Lord Jesus as my Saviour,
who has already paid for my sin.
Thank You for freeing me from the lie that I can be sinlessly perfect.
I refuse that lie today from my mind and heart.
I receive Your favour so that I can be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus, I love You and bow to You today,
Amen.