March 5, 2002

ARE YOU GOOD ENOUGH?

There is a story about the last hours of a well-known nineteenth-century Scottish theologian, Dr. David Dickson. Laying on his death bed, he found himself reviewing his life and evaluating all that he had done. There was much to be proud of, but there were also many things to be ashamed of. He could not comfort himself with his successes without coming face-to-face with his failures. This self-analysis made him more and more anxious, in spite of his theology degrees.

He explained his thoughts to his long-time friend who sat at his bedside, concluding with this:

"I have taken them all—all my good deeds and all my bad deeds—and have cast them all together in a heap before the Lord! I have fled from both of them to Jesus; and in him I have sweet peace!" (from Mountains in the Mist, by F.W. Boreham)

I have listened to countless funeral sermons that pile up a list of the person's good deeds as assurance that God has received them into eternity. The second pile, made up of the acts and thoughts the person would not be proud of, is never mentioned. The hope appears to be that God too will overlook it.

As humans we are all only relatively good or relatively bad. It's all right to emphasize a person's good pile at a funeral to celebrate the fact that he or she had value to us and will be missed. Those of us who are left behind also receive inspiration from this, an encouragement to leave a similar good pile for people to talk about when we die.

But these piles don't impress God, and a person on her or his deathbed knows that. So peace will never come to a departing soul by thinking about personal accomplishments.

Dr. Dickson, ultimately threw his good deeds and his bad deeds into one pile. They seemed equally worthless as credentials to bring before God.

In his letter to the Philippians the Apostle Paul went so far as to call his good qualifications "rubbish":

"I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him . . . ." (Philippians 3:8-9)

"Rubbish" may be too polite a translation for the Greek word; other English versions have "garbage," "filth," or "dung." A bigger pile of the stuff will not impress God more.

Peace came to Dr. Dickson when he "fled from both of them to Jesus," from the whole pile of good and bad deeds together. It's no good running from the bad deeds and embracing the good as summarizing your life. Your bad record is too real and too obvious to ignore. You must turn your back on all your accomplishments, both good and bad, and flee to Jesus, whose gracious arms have ample room for you, but will not embrace your works.

It is you he loves, not your resume

–Pastor George Van Alstine