No pleasing God

Is doing good enough to please God? Can he be pleased? That's what someone asked Billy Graham.

Q: Every day, I really try to please God by doing everything I think He'd want me to do, but how do I know if I've succeeded? I hope I'll be good enough to get into heaven.

Personally, I'd worry about if there is a God or not before concerning yourself with if you are pleasing him or not...

A: It's not wrong to want to please God, of course; far too many people, I'm afraid, simply ignore Him or don't care what He thinks about them. The Bible urges us to "please him in every way: bearing fruit in every

good work" (Colossians 1:10).

Please him in every way? So we should still be offering him burnt sacrifices then?

But listen: It is wrong to want to please God for the wrong reason! Right now, you hope that you can somehow get God to like you, if you'll only be good enough. In other words, you hope you can earn God's love by being a good person. And that probably sounds logical to you, since that's the way we often treat each other.

Yes, being a good person really should be the measure anyone gives another in order to determine if they are a, you know... a good person.

But God isn't like this! No matter how good we are, we can never earn God's love - because God's standard is perfection. In other words, even one sin - just one - would be enough to keep you out of heaven. The Bible says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10).

So what you're saying is that God is an unreasonable tyrant? According to this sadistic god's standard, stealing a 25¢ pack of Juicy Fruit gum is equal to perpetrating the Holocaust! Also, how can he even begin to expect perfection when he isn't even perfect and has supposedly cursed mankind from birth. What kind of sick being would purposely create imperfect beings and then punish them for not being perfect?

Does this mean God will never love you, and you can never be saved? Absolutely not! You aren't perfect, but Jesus was, and He came to forgive you and make you part of His family forever. He did this because God loves you and wants you to be with Him in heaven forever. Now God offers you salvation as a free gift - free, because Christ has already paid for it by His death on the cross for you. Receive this gift today by trusting Christ - and not yourself - for your salvation.

Maybe Billy doesn't realize this, but there's a few problems here. First there is the fact that there is no proof that there was a Jesus or that he did what he claims. Then there's the claim that Jesus was perfect... I've already wrote before that he was anything but! Jesus had sin too, Jesus doubted God's plan for him, and he wasn't immune to bouts of anger. So Billy, it would seem that being like Jesus wouldn't be the answer. And should that really surprise you when God was in such a hurry to have is own son killed?


-Brain Hulk

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