Isaiah 64:6 "but we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind,have taken us away."
I am a Christian, but just because i am a Christian I am no better off than you. What i have though as a Christian, is a savior in Jesus Christ and a certain hope in Him that He delivered me from sin and the punishment i deserve. Whether you agree or not with me, we are equally sinful people in the eyes of our Creator. I was a sinner before I became saved and accepted Jesus Christ, and funny enough I remain a sinner in a sinful state even after. Even so, He gave me a new heart that desires not to sin though we still stumble. We are not perfected...yet!
Jesus died for me, but not to make me better than you, because He died for you too. In fact, we fell so hard in the Garden of Eden - where sin was first introduced into the world and the first lies were told - that death entered the world and we were required to cover all future sin through the death & blood of an innocent to cover our sin so we could continue in fellowship with our Lord God.
As a father loves his children, He so loved us that He implemented a plan that very day in the Garden when Adam and Eve confessed their sin to God and with His words gave a prophecy of Jesus Christ, the one to come of her seed who would crush the head of Satan.
Genesis 3: 15 "and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel."
Adam and Eve were thrown out from the Garden of Eden before they could eat from the Tree Of Life. Had they eaten, not only would we be in the awful condition of sin, but had God allowed them to eat the fruit of that tree we would have been in an eternal condition of sin and un-redeemable by blood. God loved His children that much that He cast them out of Eden and paradise for a time until His plan of redemption was completed on the cross, but that is getting ahead of this story. Our focus is on the prophecy of Jesus and recognizing our need for a blood covering through the death of an innocent.
As time went on, our first parents bore two sons and named them Cain and Abel. We find evidence of blood sacrifice requirement in their story in Genesis when both came before the Lord with sacrifices to offer Him as sin offering. Evidently this requirement was understood by them, because they came with offering to a specific place where a fire from Heaven would come down and consume the offer to show it was accepted and cover their sin for a time.
Abel, being a faithful servant brought what God required for sin sacrifice. Abel brought a fatted lamb and offered it to God which God accepted as it is what He required. Abel brought God an offering of a fatted lamb which is what God required and was it given by faith in faith that God would deliver a greater sacrifice. Abel offered a work of faith.
Cain also knew God required a sacrifice of blood, but instead of offering God what God found pleasing, Cain offered the fruit of the land (Cain was a farmer) instead of a fatted lamb. Although the fruits of the land were probably the best he could offer, God rejected this offer because it wasn't what God instructed him to bring. Cain offered something he thought would please God, not what God required to be given in faith which was the fatted lamb and its innocent blood which would cover his sin. Cain offered a work of the flesh rather than a work of faith as Abel did.
Cain slew his brother in a jealous rage and committed the first murder by humans. If Cain had only offered what God wanted, than his own countenance would not have fallen and he would have been justified before God.
Instead, Cain offered God what so many of us today think we can offer God which is a work of the flesh rather than a work of faith, by faith and in accordance with what God requires of us. Instead of trusting God provided a sacrifice in Jesus Christ on our behalf, we insist we are "good people" and when we die God will see the "good" we have done in our lives and we will enter Heaven.
If God rejected Cain's offer, a work of the flesh, what makes us think our works would be accepted any more than Cain's were? God offered a better sacrifice in His own son Jesus, offered as the fatted lamb Abel offered, the blood of an innocent. We still want to offer Him our good works like Cain did. While what we consider "good works" do in fact help others, it doesn't satisfy what God requires of us to cover or pay our sin debt of eternal separation from Him. It does not excuse us from being punished eternally in a lake of fire.
Remember, God is the same today, yesterday and for all time. If we believe this is true, than we need to recognize God as a just God who will not lie and change on us all of a sudden. We can count on His righteous and holy power to sustain us. He simply cannot lie.
God is not like us. We are not like God As a father I have punished my own children for not doing as they were told. I would ground them from going out. I have made them write 100 times on a sheet of paper the offense they committed and how they will not violate the rules again. I have tried many different punishments and usually follow through. Sometimes I do not carry out punishment for various reasons. Some work related, sometimes a little guilt for holding them back. When I do this, I effectively become a liar because the punishment I originally intended does not get implemented, or winds up being far less severe than originally designed and I have noticed they have a tendency to re-commit the violation in these instances. The air of uncertainty that ensues when i dont follow through makes my job tougher the next time i must punish or correct them.
God is so holy and Righteous. He is not changing and does not lie. If He required us to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior & King in our hearts, than our non-lying God who does not change His mind as we corruptible humans do, must follow through when He said those who do not believe will stand in for themselves without Jesus on judgment day. This means all of your works of the flesh; those things that are but filthy rags to God that we say make us good people, will mean nothing to God.
He said there is only one way to Him, which is through Jesus Christ. Your fleshly works will mean nothing to God just as Cain's fleshly works meant nothing to God.
Your works done in faith with the knowledge God provided a better sacrifice and offering in Jesus Christ are the only works acceptable to God. Your faith in Him is what saves you and nothing more.
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