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This series looks at the top five excuses that people give for not believing in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and for not living for Him. We will examine these excuses to discover what the Bible has to say about them.
For the last three weeks we have debunked the common excuses that “There are too many hypocrites in the church!”, “Why believe and attend church when all they want is money!”, and “Why believe and attend church?  Church is for only for the elderly!”   
This week we will address one of the most common excuses people use regarding a commitment to Christ, “Compared to others, I don’t really need God!”  
As a result people live life without seeing their real need for what really matters.  
As last week, this week’s excuse can be broken down three ways that I call Do, Don’t and Done.  
First, we need to address the very subject of comparison.  
In our quest to be acceptable according to our own standard of what it means to be “spiritually correct”, we have a tendency to compare ourselves to other people.
Rather than measuring ourselves according to God’s Word in the Bible, we can erroneously compare ourselves with others which results in an overall major problem, which is we tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt.  Hence, we tend to pick someone who will make us look better than worse, good than bad and more committed to the cause at hand rather than indifferent.
When I ask people if they know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, they tend to respond like many Bermudians, “Yeah, I belong to the church!” or “I hope to make it in somehow!”.
 In order to make heaven a possible option, comparison to others becomes the bedrock of justifying their position as they argue, “I don’t really need to live for God because compared to others I’m not that bad!”
This is such dangerous thinking which results in the first way we compare ourselves with others:
Comparing the things you do
Some think you get to heaven by the things that you do.  They compare themselves with others and figure that they are safe with God because, compared to most, they give money to the poor, help people in need, volunteer for charity, and they are “nice” people.
They conclude that they really don’t need a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ because this is good enough in comparison to others.  They think they will get to heaven by what they do.  Somehow they believe that God will outweigh their good works from their bad works on a scale in order to bring about a false sense of security at best that they are living a  life acceptable before God.  
The only problem with this belief is that it is erroneous.  The Word of God states that..
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  Isaiah 64:6  NIV
That means that none of our good works are good enough to meet God’s standard that will excuse us from our state of sinfulness.  
Hence, even if you do more than all the people in your neighbourhood, all of these actions will not stand before God’s standard.  
We are to view ourselves according to His standard and not the ones we develop on our own.  
Let’s look at the second most common belief, interesting enough, there are those that believe that they are Godly by what they do and others by what they “don’t” do!
Comparing the things you don’t
Those that fall into this category compare themselves to others who have committed sins or deeds worse than they have.  For example, they look at the murderer, or the rapist, or the drug abuser and conclude, “Well I’m not that bad!”  
Yet they fail to realize that the comparison of their lives with others does not excuse the reality that they are born in a state of separation from God and desperately need Him.  These persons unlike the first category we discussed actually do less good deeds, but they are equally in need of God just like everyone else.  
Good works or the lack thereof does not cause us to “earn” salvation.  It’s not by what WE do or by what WE don’t do, but it is what JESUS has done!  
The only way to get to heaven and live for God on earth is not by comparing yourself to an unholy standard, or by taking confidence in the things you do or don’t do, but it is by believing in who Jesus is and what He has done for you. This is the only way to God, the only way to have eternal life and be guaranteed heaven.   
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, he was buried and He rose again from the dead and later ascended into heaven.  The only way to have this eternal life is not by our good works (Ephesians 2:8,9), but by coming to God in faith that He sent His Son Jesus to do for us.
To use the excuse that “I don’t need a relationship with God because I am already okay” whether we come to this conclusion based on comparison or otherwise, is the greatest deception in our world.  
The most important decision anyone can make is to accept Jesus Christ as one’s personal Saviour.  
Simply admit to God that you have sinned and believe that Jesus Christ died for you and put your faith in who He is and what He has done.  
You will find great joy, confidence and peace in this life and the one to come because,  "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  Romans 10:13  NIV.
So you don’t get to heaven by the good works you do, or the bad works you don’t do, it’s only by believing in who Jesus Christ is and what He has done.  
Pastor Gary Simons serves as the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship, 82 Church Street.[[In-content Ad]]

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