You can be good and still be lost

A man can feed the hungry, keep his promises, pay his debts, and remain completely lost.

Those are good things. The people he feeds need the food. His family needs to be able to trust his word. Nothing in the gospel gives him permission to become dishonest or cruel.

But a good reputation can persuade him that he has no need of a Savior. He can point to the life he has built and see no reason to ask God for mercy. Satan does not need that man to become a monster. A respectable life will serve the deception if it persuades him he has no need of Christ.

Jesus told a story about that kind of confidence.

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Luke 18:9

Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee. The other was a publican, a tax collector.

The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men. He named the sins he claimed to be free of, compared himself with the publican, and reported that he fasted twice a week and gave tithes of everything he possessed. Jesus had already told us where that confidence rested. The man trusted in himself.

The publican gave a different account of himself.

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Luke 18:13

Jesus said:

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Luke 18:14

The Pharisee’s mistake was not that he fasted or gave. Jesus identified the trouble before either man began to pray: he trusted in himself and despised others.

You can do the same thing without ever calling yourself a Pharisee. You can find somebody whose marriage, habits, or public failures make your own record look clean. If you use that comparison to excuse yourself, another person’s failure becomes a reason to avoid dealing honestly with God.

The other person’s sin cannot answer for yours.

Ephesians gives good works their proper place:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10

Paul includes good works in the very passage that rules them out as the basis of salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, and created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Our obedience cannot purchase the salvation that makes that new life possible.

So keep your promises. Pay what you owe. Feed the person who needs a meal. Those duties do not disappear because salvation is a gift.

But ask what you are relying on for acceptance before God. Are you trusting Christ, or are you treating your conduct as sufficient reason for God to receive you?

Read Luke 18:9-14 for yourself. Notice where the Pharisee’s confidence rested, what the publican asked for, and which man Jesus said went home justified.

You do not have to build a better record before asking for the mercy you need. Come to Christ as a sinner. Your goodness cannot do His work.

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