"There's no use in your talking fanaticism," said a sailor to a Christian shipmate. "My creed," he added, "is plain and simple. I believe in God, but not in Christ, and think that if a man does the best he can, it will be all right with him at the last."
"And is this the only condition of salvation that you believe in?"
"Yes, this is plain and reasonable, and it is enough."
"How many times have you used profane language since you spoke to me?"
"Well, several times. I know it is wrong as well as you, but I mean to leave it off."
"Can you leave it off after indulging in it for many years?"
"O, certainly, if I would try."
"Is this the only sin you have ever committed?"
"O, no! I'm not one of that kind, that pretends to be perfect."
"Might you not have avoided many of those sins?"
"Yes."
"Do you expect to go to Heaven?"
"Yes, I believe everyone will get to Heaven who does the best he can."
"That may be true, but you have admitted that you have not done the best you could, and implied that no one else does. So you have cut yourself, and us, from Heaven, on the only condition you will allow. What are you now going to do?"
"I never thought of that." And Jack was silenced!
How foolish for men or women to talk of obtaining salvation through doing their best. If the reader thinks he has done his "best," may I ask him if he never did anything wrong? Have you never cherished unkind, foolish, or wrong thought?
"Many a time." What does God say about it?
Have you loved God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? And have you loved your neighbor as yourself?
"No one has done so," you reply. No one on earth has always been what he should have been, or done what he should have done; and Scripture declares that,
If salvation could be obtained only on the ground of our "doings," it would be a poor lookout for us, for God has declared that,
"There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not." Eccl. 7:2020For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Scripture declares that salvation is not of works.
The best thing the unsaved reader can do is to cease all efforts to merit salvation.
Salvation is not obtained on the ground of our doings, but on the ground of Christ's atoning sacrifice. It is not bestowed on those who imagine they have done the best they could.
"To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly," is God's way of justification. It is "ungodly" sinners, not "good" ones that God saves.
If the reader takes his place among the "ungodly," and believes on Christ Jesus the sinner's Savior and Friend, he will obtain the free and full forgiveness of all his sins.