Falling Short

Can the good you do ever outweigh the bad? There's a verse in God's Word that answers that question: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23.

When I saw this set of scales hanging on a wall in a museum in Ephesus, Turkey, it reminded me of the fact that no matter how much good we try to do in our lives, that good can never outweigh the sin that is our birthright. Think of the nicest, most giving and loving person you know. Now, imagine stacking all the goodness in that person on the upper pan of that scale, while the sin in which we were all born sits on the lower pan of the scale. Whoa, the scale didn't budge. The sin still outweighs all that good. Sadly, we all fall short of that level of perfection. Even that dear person you know is not good enough in themselves. Romans 3:10 goes on to say, "There is none righteous, no not one."

Believe it or not, this is actually a good thing. You see, since none of us is good enough in herself and none of us has the ability to work good enough works to outweigh our sin, we are all equally needy of the salvation Jesus Christ offers through His sacrifice on the cross. This offer Jesus makes to each of us is like no other offer on this earth -- it's free - it's amazing and fantastic and just downright unbelievable. But, believe it you must -- if you want to get that scale working in your favor.

Jesus Christ's offer is one you simply must not refuse. He offers to tip the scale in your favor by taking those good works of yours and replacing them with His perfect work of salvation wrought on the cross. It's a win-win situation and all you have to do is accept His offer of salvation.  It's the only way that scale will ever balance out. 

There's a verse in Psalm 62:9 that's interesting, --"Surely men of low degree are a vapor, men of high degree are a lie; if they are weighed on the scales, they are altogether lighter than vapor." Whether a person appears to be a loser or appears to be wealthy and brilliant -- it doesn't matter, as far as the value of their good works, they are lighter than vapor on the scale of eternity's values. As you can see, eternity's view of a woman/man's life is far different than the world's view. Which view and which set of scales do you think will be used on each of us before the Judgment Seat of Christ?