Too Bad vs. Too Good

When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as being too bad or too good. We are all in need of a Savior no matter what we've done in this life. There are those who think that God could never love them because......you could fill in the blank with just about anything you've ever done wrong. Or you could fall into the opposite camp of I'm not such a bad person because.......and list off all of the things that you've done in this life thinking that you really don't need God because you're just not that bad. Both views would leave you hopelessly separated from God. The truth is Christ died for ALL of us. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." You don't have to be perfect to come to know Jesus as your Savior. We are to come to Christ, as we are, and confess our sin to him and ask for his forgiveness and turn from our sin. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. Jesus died for ALL of our sin, past, present, and future. Before I came to know Christ I fell into the "I'm not that bad group". I had never murdered anyone, never robbed a bank, and the worst thing I ever did was try to stay out a little past my curfew. I thought that I would be safe because I was a "pretty good" person. In Isaiah 64:6, it says "...all our righteous acts are like filthy rags..." That means you can never do enough good to balance out the fact that we are all sinners. When all is said and done, and our lives are placed in the balance, our good deeds can never tip the balance in our favor. The only thing that will cover our sins is the blood that God's son shed on the cross for us. Ephesians 2:8-9 sums it up for us so well, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." So you see, no matter where you are, you can never be so far gone that God cannot save you, or too good, that you aren't in need of his saving grace.