CALLING one day at a house to leave a little gospel book with the occupant, we learned that she had been very sick, and was just recovering from a severe illness. Seeking to learn how matters stood between her and God, we inquired after her soul’s welfare. All she could tell us, after speaking of the goodness of the Almighty, was, “I’m doing the best I can.”
She was but a sample of thousands on every hand, who like her, are deceived and duped by the devil into the belief that doing the best they can will do for God. Never was there a more fatal delusion. If infidelity has slain its thousands, doing your best is damning its tens of thousands.
“Do your best” is the devil’s delusion. It is the false light which leads the unwary on to the rocks of eternal woe. Ever since Cain, the founder of human religion, took that way, thousands of poor deluded souls have been found to follow in his steps.
Suppose we visit a murderer in the condemned cell, as he waits there the execution of the sentence which has been passed upon him. We speak to him of his guilt, and the judgment that awaits him, and that his only way of escape is by obtaining a free pardon from Her Majesty the Queen. He listens to all we have to say, and then calmly answers, “I’m doing the best I can.” What folly! What could doing his best procure? Could it undo the guilty past, undo the awful crime he is guilty of, and cleanse his hands, which are stained with the blood of a fellow-creature? Never!
And yet there are hundreds, and may be you are among the number, who stand charged with the terrible offense, an offense against God―that of sin, and the rejection of His Son.
Under this just condemnation you are now lying, with the sentence soon to be put into execution, and yet you lightly talk of doing your best, Oh, be wise and take the sinner’s place, renouncing all doing of your own, and trust the finished work of Christ which has been wrought for sinners, and still avails for all who rest their souls upon it. You cannot blot out one sin, nor with your sin-stained hands put your guilt away. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” Alas! you have done your worst, and not your best; for God has gone into the matter, and He has said, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:1212They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:12)). So you see your statement and God’s Word do not agree. Let God be true, and every man a liar.
“‘It is finished!’ sinners hear it,
“Tis the dying Victor’s cry;
‘It is finished!’ angels, bear it,
Bear the joyful truth on high!
‘It is finished!’
Tell it through the earth and sky.”
E.E.N.