Nowhere in Scripture does God say, "mankind must do its part too in order to be saved.
If any part of salvation depended on us, then none of it would have depended on Christ. A man who is desperately wicked cannot change His character; only Christ can do that!
Only the Perfect Lamb of God could pay for the sin of mankind. No person is perfect; therefore, they could have no part in their own salvation.
Luke 5:21 "And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Even the Pharisees recognized that only God could forgive sins. This is why they considered it blasphemy that Christ claimed He could forgive sin because He was the Son of God and one with God the Father.
Anyone who thinks they are saving themselves by being good enough is denying Jesus Christ as the only One Who can save mankind from sin and hell.
Isaiah 53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Mankind cannot lay upon itself the iniquity of itself in payment for its own sin; it is desperately wicked and without remedy, as God clearly states in His Word.
Jeremiah 17:9 "9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
What do "desperately wicked" and "deceitful" mean?
The human mind has the ability to trick itself into believing how wonderful it is, right in the middle of hateful and despicable attitudes and actions, while pretending to be righteous.
Mankind can make seemingly good choices, but choices without God will be self-exalting and self-promoting every time. The propensity to do good deeds to elevate oneself is the ugly plight of mankind. Without Christ, nothing is done selflessly, no matter how good it looks or what someone may say.
All we have to do is watch the response when we correct or chastise someone for bad behavior. Nearly every time, we will not experience humility from the one who has been reprimanded; the response will be arguing to justify or denying the truth in most cases.
There are few people left who appreciate being corrected and want to better themselves. Nearly everyone has a much higher opinion of themselves than is warranted, wishing to impress others with what is not real.
The final verdict in this mess of mankind is that no one has the ability to add to the saving grace of Jesus Christ with their own efforts.
No one is special; no one deserves anything but death. The beauty in knowing this is that we have no good expectations of ourselves; we can fully lean on Jesus Christ, depending on His goodness and His virtue and not our own.
Mankind is without goodness entirely without Christ.
Romans 1:31-32 "…31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them."
Why are our churches a mess today? The answer is simply that many people are joining them but have never trusted in Christ to be indwelt by Him. They have never heard the salvation message of repentance and are coddled in their sin, even endorsed in it by lack of correction.
Those who have not trusted in Christ do not realize the burden that is lifted when we know we are not expected to perfect ourselves; Christ must do His work in us or all our efforts to be good enough for heaven are useless and completely unproductive.
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."
Luke 18:10-14
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Matthew 32:12 "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
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