“I never did anybody any harm; I have always paid my way; I have been honest in everything I did, and never had any ill will toward anybody. In fact, if anybody can consider he is all right, I am the one.”
“There is no salvation for you, then!”
“What do you mean?”
“I have no message of salvation for you. There is no good news for you.”
“Why not?”
“Simply because you do not need it. You are, according to your own account, a righteous person. My Bible tells me expressly that Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners. So if you are not a sinner, Christ did not come to save you.”
“Well, I did not mean exactly that I could do without the work of Christ.”
“Quite so, but Romans 5 says that Christ died for the ungodly, for sinners, for His enemies. If you do not own yourself to be without God, an enemy by nature and a sinner in practice, how can you claim a part in His great salvation? As long as you stand on the platform of your own goodness, how can you be saved?”
“What must I do then?”
“Admit that what God says about you is true! Own that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Take the place of a guilty sinner before Him, like the publican who cried, God be merciful to me a sinner. Then, like him, you will be saved.”
The believer can say, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. (Titus 3:5.) v