"I don't believe in your doctrine," said a sailor to a Christian. "My opinion is that if a man does the best he can, it will be all right with him in the end."
"And is that the only way by which a man can get to heaven?"
"I believe so, and don't you think that it is a good way?"
"Do you expect to get there?"
"Of course I do."
"How many times have you used profane language since you spoke to me?"
"Oh, well, I have got into the habit of swearing, but I mean to give it up."
"And is that the only sin you are guilty of?" "Oh, no; I am not one of those people who pretend to be perfect."
"Then you have not done the best you could. If that is the only way of getting to heaven, you have not the slightest chance of ever being there."
The sailor's mouth was stopped.
But do you expect to be saved by "doing your best"? This is not God's way of salvation. What is the use of saying, "If a man does the best he can," when God's Word emphatically tells us that no one has ever done so? Listen to the voice of God: "They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Psalm 14:33They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Psalm 14:3).
You know well that you have done what you should not have done many, many times. You "don't pretend to be perfect." But one sin is enough to condemn you! "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:1010For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10).
The "best" that you can do is to admit that you are a helpless, guilty sinner, unable to do a single good deed to merit God's forgiveness. When you see yourself as a sinner, you will be anxious to learn what the Lord Jesus Christ did to save you; when you see that "everything was fully done" by Him, you will stop talking about your "doing" and rest instead on what He has done.