WHY MUST I BE SAVED?
Are You Really Good?
From the very beginning of human existence, we have consistently disobeyed God. Humanity has strayed, following false gods and religions, led astray by our desires instead of obeying God. The apostle Paul offers a fundamental explanation of our need for salvation in Acts 17:19-31. He revealed to the Athenians that we are created beings who have gone astray, living according to our own ways. God has given us free will, allowing us to choose our paths. However, in following our sinful tendencies, we have erased the only true and living God from our minds, replacing Him with images that suit our beliefs. Despite our wicked tendencies, the Lord has continued to provide for our daily needs.
God is Holy
God holds us all accountable for our ungodliness and unrighteousness. Due to Adam and Eve's sin, this is the condition of the human race. We deserve the death sentence that sin brings because of our immoral behavior. Perhaps you don't see yourself this way, but no one is flawless or good enough in God's eyes. God demands that we live up to His standards because He is holy, without sin, and perfect. He will judge the world at the end of the age according to His standards, not ours. We deserve to be punished and destroyed for all time.
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned— Romans 5:12
Even the most morally "good" person still cannot measure up. As it is written:
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Romans 3:10-12).
Sin is so entrenched in our nature that even our thoughts are unclean. So, you don't commit adultery against your spouse, but you think about it? Maybe you haven't killed someone, but you have hated him. The prophet Isaiah understood just how sinful our good deeds are:
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6).
