You Cannot Just Choose to be a Better Person to be Saved

I have actually heard people say they were irritated that someone else had a monstrous story about how terrible they were before they were born again.

These person felt slighted that they didn't have such a story, their life was not that bad.

As I pondered what these people were saying I realized that they may not have wept over their sinfulness in order to come to Christ in brokenness. They couldn't figure out what was so bad about themselves that they could tell a good story about their salvation.

Perhaps these people who had no story to tell about their salvation and how wicked they used to be before they became born again, was because they never were broken, they never felt sinful and never thought there was a need to confess anything evil about themselves. In fact they are quite pleased with themselves for choosing to be better people. Sadly they don't understand that God must do the changing in us for it to be His work. If we are still depending on our own goodness to get to heaven we will miss the mark. Here is the proof:

Matthew 7:21-23
"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I doubt that these people who didn't have a testimony about their own sinfulness could have ever been born again.

All of us who have been born again can openly and honestly say we were sinful, unworthy of God's love. We are no longer ashamed of the sin we lived because God cleansed us with His blood.

When we find ourselves with a wrong attitude or action we confess quickly to be cleansed and get back to obedience to Christ.

Perhaps if you think you have decided to be a good person for God, ought to read the word and become broken over your pride. As long as that pride remains to earn your salvation by choosing to be a good person, you cannot become born again To be born again one must confess their sinfulness, trust what Christ did to pay for your sins and ask Him to change you into a new creation.

Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Stop trying to save yourself, stop trying to pretend you are good and confess that pride to God.

Boasting is a Sin

No one is better than anyone else. Those who have elevated themselves based on comparing themselves with others, will find out soon enough that they are nothing just like the rest of us when they begin to compare themselves with our Holy God.

2 Corinthians 10:12-14
"12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.
13 But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you."

Boasting about ourselves is frowned upon by God.

James 4:16
"As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."

Jeremiah 9:23
"Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,"

Proverbs 27:2
"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips."

It is boasting to say such things as "I'm a good person."

Romans 3:10-11 "10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God."

Flattering others is equally as sinful as boasting.

Proverbs 29:5
"A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet."

Proverbs 26:24-28
"Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin."

Proverbs 28:23
"Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue."

Job 32:21-22 l
"I will not show partiality to any man or use flattery toward any person. For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away."