Firming Your Foundation
When Have I Done Enough?
by David Churchill
Ive
done enough for God. I dont have to do any more. Im
doing all I can do for God. I cant do any more. I suspect
we all have felt this way at one time or another. And perhaps, at
that particular moment, we actually expressed that sentiment of doing or
having done enough. But, momentary feelings aside, at what point in
our lives do we have the facts to correctly reach that assessment or the
right to decide for ourselves that God doesnt require any more of
us.
Can we say Ive done enough
for God as lost sinners before we regain a right relationship
with God? According to Ezekiel 18:20-22, God has an expectation from
the lost sinner. He expects the lost sinner either to remain disobedient
and die, or else, to repent and live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall
not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.
The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked man
turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and
does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None
of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against
him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. God wants the lost sinner to
listen to Him. The New Testament records six times Jesus explicitly
telling the crowds, He
who has ears to hear, let him hear!
God thinks the lost sinner can do more and be more. We should
think so, too.
Can we say Ive done enough
for God as new Christians with little knowledge and less experience?
Peter writes in the first chaper of his second general epistle, Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power
has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the
knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given
to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control,
to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly
kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are
yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted,
even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election
sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance
will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
To those of us who appreciate our escape from being lost, he instructs
us to diligently grow in knowledge and attitude and experience and maturity
so that we may be productive. God thinks the new Christian can do
more and be more. We should think so, too.
Can we say Ive done enough
for God as older, mature Christians whove lived in service
to God, but now must confront a loss of abilities & energies or perhaps
find death knocking at their door? As Peter sees the end of his life
approaching, he takes care that his service to God goes beyond his physical
death. For
this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things,
though you know and are established in the present truth, we read in 2 Peter 1:12-15. Yes, I think it is right,
as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that
shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder
of these things after my decease.
A few sentences later he points out that we cannot simply relax our
submission to Gods word because we have the prophetic word confirmed, which
you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day
dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that
no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy
never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit.
God thinks the mature Christian can do more and be more. We
should think so, too.
Can we say Ive done enough
for God because we have always done our best and our best was
always self-sufficiently more than adequate? Paul plainly reminds
us in his letter to the Roman church that now the righteousness of God apart from
the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the
righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who
believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation
by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in
His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just
and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. God thinks every person can do more
and be more. We should think so, too.
Actually, if we genuinely consider ourselves
to be slaves of righteousness, to be slaves of God, then weve
never had the right to tell God when weve done enough for Him. Instead,
God is the one who will tell us when weve done enough. In Luke
12:35-48, Jesus explains our terrible fate if we dare to presume the right
to live as though weve done enough for God. |