Lesson 3 — Why We Need Jesus | Being Good Is Not the Gospel
Updated: 5 days ago
Taking the Hard Questions to Jesus
— One Lesson at a Time
Why We Need Jesus | Being Good Is Not the Gospel
Why We Need Jesus—and Why Being Good Is Not Enough
In Lesson 1, we asked:
What happened to us?
Scripture showed us that God created good, but man disobeyed God. Sin entered the world, death entered through sin, and mankind began hiding, covering, and blaming.
In Lesson 2, we asked:
Why can’t we see?
Scripture showed us that sin affects more than our behavior. It affects what we love, what we believe, what we defend, and whether we are willing to come into the Light.
Now we come to the question at the center of it all:
Why Jesus?
Why can’t we simply try harder, become better people, perform more good deeds, or practice a religion?
Why did God give His only begotten Son?
Come sit with me awhile, and let’s keep learning from Christ and the Word of God together.
Is Being Good Enough?
To understand why we need Jesus, we must first understand that being a good person cannot cure the problem of sin or reconcile us to God.
There are people who perform beautiful acts of kindness, generosity, sacrifice, and compassion.
We can thank God for every good thing.
Scripture tells us:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…”— James 1:17 KJV
And Scripture certainly teaches us to do good:
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”— Romans 12:21 KJV
But doing good things is not the same as being without sin.
Good works cannot erase sin.
Kindness cannot make us righteous before a holy God.
Generosity cannot pay the debt of sin.
Religion cannot give life to a spiritually dead heart.
Jesus said:
“…there is none good but one, that is, God.”— Mark 10:18 KJV
And Scripture tells us:
“As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one.”— Romans 3:10 KJV
“For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God.”— Romans 3:23 KJV
Again, this teaching must not become:
Look how sinful everybody else is.
It brings me back to the same question:
“Lord, is it I?”— Matthew 26:22 KJV
Yes.
I have sinned.
I have come short of the glory of God.
I need more than an example of a good person to imitate.
I need a Saviour.
What Sin Earns
Scripture does not describe sin as a small mistake that can be corrected by adding enough good deeds to the other side of a scale.
“For the wages of sin is death…”— Romans 6:23 KJV
Wages are something earned.
Sin earns death.
That takes us back to God’s warning in Genesis:
“…in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”— Genesis 2:17 KJV
God was not lying.
Sin entered, and death followed.
We cannot undo death by promising to behave better from now on.
We cannot remove our own guilt.
We cannot bring ourselves back into right relationship with God.
But Romans 6:23 does not end with the wages of sin:
“For the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”— Romans 6:23 KJV
The wages are earned.
The gift is given.
And that gift comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Who Is Jesus?
Jesus is not merely one good teacher among many.
He is not merely a religious example showing us how to behave.
John tells us:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.”— John 1:1 KJV
And then:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”— John 1:14 KJV
The Word who was with God and was God became flesh and dwelt among us.
God did not remain distant from the suffering of this fallen world.
Jesus entered it.
He experienced hunger, weariness, rejection, grief, betrayal, false accusation, physical pain, and death.
Yet Jesus was without sin.
Scripture says He:
“…was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”— Hebrews 4:15 KJV
Jesus is the only One qualified.
Every other person needs to be saved.
Jesus came to save.
Every other person has sinned.
Jesus was without sin.
Every other person owes the wages of sin.
Jesus willingly gave His life for sinners.
This is why Christianity cannot be centered upon the goodness of any human being.
The Gospel points us to Jesus Christ.
God So Loved the World
When we see the depth of mankind’s sin,
John 3:16 becomes even more breathtaking:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”— John 3:16 KJV
Man sinned.
Man hid.
Man blamed.
Cain murdered Abel.
The human heart became deceitful.
People loved darkness rather than Light.
But God so loved the world.
God did not give His Son because mankind had proven itself worthy.
He gave His Son because He loved us.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”— Romans 5:8 KJV
Not after we made ourselves good.
Not after we cleaned everything up.
Not after we earned His love.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That is grace.
Grace doesn't make a wrong right. Rather, Grace Teaches us and gives us an opportunity to do better next time.
Grace gives us opportunity; A real question is how committed are we to God?
We are strengthened by grace teaching us.
Are we willing to grow?
Jesus Entered Our Suffering
One of the questions beneath this entire study has been:
Where is God when people suffer?
We are not ready to answer every mystery of suffering yet.
That lesson is still ahead of us.
But we can already see this:
God did not answer human suffering merely by watching it from Heaven and telling us to behave better.
Jesus entered our suffering.
He was rejected.
He was betrayed.
He was falsely accused.
He was beaten.
He was mocked.
He was crucified by sinful men.
Peter said:
“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”— Acts 2:23 KJV
God’s sovereign purpose and man’s responsibility stand together in that verse.
The hands that crucified Jesus were called wicked.
God did not call their evil good.
And yet God accomplished salvation through the greatest
evil mankind ever committed—the crucifixion of the sinless Son of God.
Jesus bore our sins:
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…”— 1 Peter 2:24 KJV
Paul writes:
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”— 2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV
Jesus took what belonged to us so that, in Him,
we could receive what we could never produce for ourselves.
He Died, Was Buried, and Rose Again
The Gospel does not end at the cross.
Paul tells us:
“…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
“And that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures.”— 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 KJV
Jesus died for our sins.
He was buried.
And He rose again.
Death did not defeat Him.
The grave did not hold Him.
Evil did not get the final word.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
That is why our hope is not found in becoming a slightly improved version
of ourselves.
Our hope is in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The Way Back to God
Jesus did not say that He was one possible way to God.
He said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”— John 14:6 KJV
Jesus is the Way.
Jesus is the Truth.
Jesus is the Life.
Scripture also says:
“For there is one God,
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”— 1 Timothy 2:5 KJV
A mediator stands between two parties to bring reconciliation.
Sin separated us from God.
Jesus came to bring us to God.
“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself…”— Colossians 1:20 KJV
This is why Jesus is not an addition to our own goodness.
He is not an accessory to the life we have already built.
He is not merely someone who helps us become more religious.
Jesus is the only Way back to the Father.
Grace, Not Human Achievement
Scripture makes this plain:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
“Not of works, lest any man should boast.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…”
— Ephesians 2:8–10 KJV
We are not saved by good works.
We are saved by grace through faith.
But when God saves us, He creates us in Christ Jesus unto good works.
Good works do matter
—but they are not the price we pay to purchase salvation.
They are the fruit of the life God gives.
The Gospel does not say:
Work hard enough until God owes you eternal life.
The Gospel says:
God gives eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There is no room for boasting.
There is only room for gratitude, worship, faith, and obedience.
Why Jesus?
Why Jesus?
Because all have sinned.
Because the wages of sin is death.
Because we cannot remove our own guilt.
Because good works cannot give life to a dead heart.
Because religion cannot reconcile us to God.
Because Jesus is God come in the flesh.
Because Jesus alone was without sin.
Because He bore our sins upon the cross.
Because He died, was buried, and rose again.
Because He is the one Mediator between God and man.
Because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
And because eternal life is found in knowing Him:
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”— John 17:3 KJV
Lord, Is It I?
This lesson gives me another question to bring before the Lord:
Am I trusting in Jesus Christ—or am I trusting in my own goodness?
Am I relying upon what He accomplished
—or what I believe I have accomplished?
Am I following Jesus
—or merely trying to appear religious?
Am I pointing people to Christ
—or drawing attention to human goodness?
“Lord, is it I?”
Search me.
Teach me.
Help me see that without You, I can do nothing.
Jesus said:
“…for without me ye can do nothing.”— John 15:5 KJV
The Third Foundation
Christianity is not sinful people trying harder to become good enough for God.
It is the good God coming to save sinful people through Jesus Christ.
We needed more than instruction.
We needed rescue.
We needed more than a better example.
We needed a Saviour.
And God gave us Jesus.
The next lesson will ask:
Lesson 4 — Flesh or Spirit?
If we have come to Christ,
why can’t we simply choose goodness through our own strength?
What does Scripture mean by the flesh and the Spirit?
And what does it mean to learn Christ
and be transformed by the renewing of our minds?
We will take those questions to the Word of God next.
Christ is the Teacher; I am a fellow learner.
Thank you for sitting with me awhile.
Comments