The most pervasive false gospel, both today and perhaps throughout the history of the Christian church, is the gospel of “Good Enough”. This false gospel takes many different forms:
- God knows our hearts—or He looks at our hearts—so we’ll be saved.
- A “true believer” will sin less and less.
- We don’t need to be perfect, but we can’t expect God to keep forgiving the same sins over and over again.
- We don’t need to be perfect, but we aren’t truly believers if we don’t obey.
- God doesn’t forgive a sin unless we have truly repented of that sin.
- We aren’t saved based on our obedience to the Law, but repentance means that we try harder to do God’s will.
At first glance the gospel of “Good Enough” seems like great news. Hearing that we don’t have to be perfect in order to be saved by God is refreshing to people living under the burden of strict legalism. Sadly, however, a salvation that is based on “Good Enough” diminishes both the holiness of God and the grace of God.
The Bible shows us that God’s standard for holiness—His criteria for obedience—is perfect and complete obedience:
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (Jas. 2:10).
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48).
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them” (Gal. 3:10).
It’s important to understand that one is not obedient to the Law unless he is obeying all of the Law all of the time. Any case of disobedience turns one from being a Law-keeper to being a Law-breaker. In fact, one single case of disobedience means that one is guilty of breaking the whole Law and is under the curse of the Law.
Jesus even expanded the application of Law by making it clear that it wasn’t just our deeds that broke the Law, but also our words and our thoughts (Mt. 5:21-30). In the story of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37), Jesus also teaches us that we are also sinning whenever we fail to do good.
In other words, the only holiness that is good enough for God is complete and total holiness. In fact, the only holiness that is good enough for God is His own holiness—the holiness that is found in the Son. When we make any lesser amount of obedience and holiness acceptable to God, we have diminished the holiness of God.
We’re not holy
Because we aren’t holy, we are reliant on the holiness of Another in our place. Christ died the death that we deserve, and we are credited with His spotless righteousness. Our “Good Enough” life can’t possibly add anything to the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness with which we have been clothed. If our either attaining or maintaining our salvation involves us being “Good Enough”, we would have something to boast about in regards to that salvation. Yet Scripture is clear that we have nothing we can boast about (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:1-8) in regards to our salvation. All of our righteous acts are nothing more than filthy rags (Is. 64:6*) before God.
Martin Luther put it this way: “The most damnable and pernicious heresy that has ever plagued the mind of man was the idea that somehow he could make himself good enough to deserve to live with an all-holy God.”
The truth that we cannot be good enough to be in the presence of a holy God shouldn’t discourage us from engaging in loving acts towards others; instead, we need to keep those acts in the proper perspective. Those acts, no matter how good they might be, aren’t “Good Enough” to make us acceptable to God.
When we start looking for something that we can contribute to our salvation, we fall into the trap of the Galatians. We might fully accept that we have been (past tense) saved by God’s grace, but we are looking for something else, something more, to stay in this reconciled relationship with God. When we try to add our works to what Christ did, however, we are actually denying the work of Christ.
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law (or any of our works), then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:21).
The heart of the Gospel is that Christ lived, died, and was raised again for us (1 Cor. 2:2). Our righteousness, and therefore acceptance, before God is based solely on Christ. We are counted as having His righteousness through faith (Rom. 3:21-31 & 4:1-6).
The concept of “Good Enough” ultimately circles back to whether to we are saved by grace through faith or through good works empowered by God. If we can be, or need to be, “Good Enough” to be saved by God, then we are no longer saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. If our efforts are needed for salvation, then it is no longer grace alone nor faith alone. Instead it is grace combined with what we do with that grace.
What we do, though, is always something we could brag about, but the true Gospel is never about us; it is always about Christ. Consider a few variants of the gospel of “Good Enough” against the true Gospel:
- We might be tempted to think that God will save us because He knows our hearts are in the right place; but our lives, including our hearts, remain in the constant combination of sinful flesh and indwelling Spirit. Our hearts produce love of others, but they also produce anger, pride, greed, lust and envy. Our hearts are more likely to reveal our underlying sinfulness than our behaviors are.
- We might be tempted to believe that God saves us based on the fact that we are continually getting better, that, as a true follower of God, we will sin less and less as times goes on. It is almost like a gym class where the grade isn’t based on how fast we ran the mile, but how much our time improved during the semester. In the “better and better” paradigm, righteousness is defined by whether we are better this month than last month. Without any standard for righteousness, though, how could I possibly know if my “improvement” was enough? Worse yet, what does it mean for my salvation if my life is currently in one of those down dips that are part of the daily struggles and life that we all experience? This false gospel sounds tempting on the surface, but the deeper truth is that it robs the believer of any assurance of salvation.
- Related to this idea of being saved because we are getting better is the damning phrase, “You don’t need to be perfect, but you can’t expect God to keep forgiving the same sins over and over again”. The first part of this phrase is supposed to make any concern about salvation by works go away, because one doesn’t need to be perfect to be saved, just “good enough”! Matthew 18:21-22, however, may give us a little insight into how many times God forgives the same sin. When does God stop forgiving our daily examples of selfishness and pride? I’ve also wondered how God would know when this limit is reached if He doesn’t keep a record of believer’s sins (I Co. 13:5; Heb. 8:12, 10:17)? The underlying truth of this statement is that one must, at some point in their lives, stop sinning if they want to be saved by God. In this teaching, our salvation is completely dependent on our works.
- The final theme in the “gospel of good enough” is the idea of forgiveness and salvation based on repentance. This scheme is the hardest one to fully understand because it is clear that salvation requires repentance (Acts 2:38). Our problem in understanding comes from our problem in defining the word “repentance”. Many people understand repentance to mean “turning away from sin”. This definition, however, is not the actual meaning of the word. Consider how many times God is described as repenting in the OT (e.g., Gen 6:6, Ex 32:14), but certainly the Bible authors aren’t saying that God sinned and is turning away from His sin. These verses make a little more sense when we correctly understand the meaning of repent as “changing one’s mind”. (God didn’t actually change His mind, instead it is a figure of speech on how God’s actions would seem to people. One could write an entire article on just this subject.) Turning to God results in being born again and having the Holy Spirit indwell us, which ultimately leads to fruits that should be visible to others. But the long-term result of the repentance shouldn’t be confused with the actual meaning of the word. We aren’t forgiven because of the behavioral changes that repentance ultimately produces, any more than we are saved by the changes the faith ultimately causes. When we place the events of salvation in the wrong order, we change the message of how we are saved. We create a false gospel.
Summary
We aren’t “Good Enough”. We can never be “Good Enough”. Christ alone is “Good Enough”. Our salvation is based totally on faith in the One (Christ) Who was “Good Enough” to fulfill the righteous requirements of God. We are God’s children, not because we are “Good Enough” but because He has chosen to make us part of His family through the personal goodness and righteousness of Christ.
P.S. If you’re left curious about how a believer’s good works relate to the Gospel, you’ll probably want to read my next blog article in the Ephesians series where I will be discussing Ephesians 2:10.
*There is certainly controversy surrounding whether this verse rightly applies to believers. I understand and respect this controversy. My conclusion falls on the side of the argument that our very best Spirit-led works are still tainted by our sinful flesh (and therefore our sinful desires and motives). Since these works still have the taint of sin, they may be good works as it relates to my fellow human being, but these works do not constitute righteousness in God’s eyes. Allow me to illustrate; I might help a person in need by providing them with food, clothing, shelter and/or money. Perhaps 95%, or even more, of the reason that I do this is because I feel compassion for this person and his situation. But I feel good about myself, and at least a small part of me hopes that other people might notice what I have done. This small part is the selfish taint of sin. That little amount of sin taints the entire act and precludes it from being truly righteous before God. Our best deeds, empowered by the Holy Spirt, are still not good enough for us to be considered righteous before God.
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