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Romans 3:23 confirms that:

All [of us] have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We try to do the right thing; we try to think the right thoughts. But how often we fail! When we consider the holiness of Almighty God, we realize, and the Bible confirms, that we cannot earn or work our way into a healthy and peaceful relationship with God! Pretending that God doesn’t exist, or ignoring the fact that some day we must account to God for our actions and thoughts, is not the answer.

So, then, what do we do?

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

There is only one way to “get right” with God: it is by getting to know Jesus, and placing our faith in Him, rather than continuing to “do life” in our own strength and for our own purposes.

This requires shedding our adult pride that says “I’ll do what I want!” Instead, we must approach this subject humbly with a child-like trust in the path God has set before us for our own good. God is our Father and Creator; He knows what’s good for us. Our past hurts and disappointment can be obstacles to our doing this, but we must persevere. A tremendous gift awaits us if we do. John 3:16 tells us that we can have eternal life—that is, a close and personal relationship with God, now and forever:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God desires to have intimacy with us, in every detail of our lives. He, moreover, has provided a helper to us. The Holy Spirit is the comforter and counselor who lives inside every believer. We mature over time through the Holy Spirit, as we hear and meditate on the word of God (the Bible), and as we praise and worship God and speak with Him freely and honestly in prayer.

James 4:8 contains God’s promise to us:

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

The decision is ours.

As to any “good works” that we may do, Ephesians 2:10 confirms that good works are the fruit or result of a saving faith in Jesus, not the root or means of getting right with God:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Intimacy with God: ABC Issues of the Heart

We must:

Acknowledge that we have done wrong and hurtful things in thought and action (“sin”).

Believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and for eternal life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them (John 3:36).

Confess Jesus as our Savior and Lord, and turn toward Him and away from our sins.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).

© 2008 E. Ellsworth McMeen, III

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