0365. Not of Works

Not of Works

We have before us a most important theme. There seems to be an almost universal "be good, and be saved" religion, gripping both the young and the old.

When you ask one if he is saved, too often the answer is, "I am doing the best I know," or, "I try to live right," or, "I am a member of the church," or, "I try to do unto others as I would be done by."

There are many "Keep Sweet" and "Don’t Worry" Societies. Soldiers are taught that salvation is assured those who buy it with "the supreme sacrifice." Lodge men often plead the high moral standards of the lodge room as their hope of Heaven. Church-members vainly imagine that their church-membership, and their miserably weak church service will give them entrance to Heaven.

This is an age of human righteousness. There is in every circle, social and civic, a demand for a general clean-up. Men are going about preaching a righteousness apart from the faith of Christ. Satan and his ministers are preaching this same righteousness.

All of this human goodness, however, is far, far short of the holy demands of God. Going about to establish their own righteousness, men have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. This human righteousness is a bed too short and covers too narrow, upon which a man may stretch himself.

Beware of any righteousness that boasts in the flesh and makes void the Cross of Christ, and which despoils the righteousness which is alone by faith in Him.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR