Self-Improvement?

12/19/2016              Jorge, Conner             20's, 60's     
Two back to back conversations seemed very different yet had much in common. I talked with Jorge, early 20's, after he fueled up his sports car at a gas station. He trusts that he will be reincarnated and have another chance to make up for any mistakes he makes in this life. He's had a church background and seemed respectful of the Bible, so I told him what the Bible says about reincarnation: "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…” (Hebrews 9:28) This helped Jorge take the Gospel more seriously when he realized this life is our one shot, this is the one life by which we will be judged. 

Next I found Conner, about 60, sitting in the snack area at a Walmart. He didn't believe in reincarnation but what he did believe was very similar. He believed that though he'd had many moral failings early in life, he was constantly improving and hoped to "get it right" toward the end of his life. But is that possible? I told him "It's good that you repent and try to change your ways for the better. But even if you were to repent perfectly and never sin again, you would still be guilty and accountable for the things you've already done."

Both Jorge and Conner trusted in self-improvement in this life or another life to come. But God's perfect justice requires punishment for the sins they've already committed, and no amount of self-improvement can make up for that. The Bible finishes that statement about death and judgment with good news – “…so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many". (vs. 29) Jesus is the way to receive this righteousness, this right standing before God, now, today, the day of salvation; not after any amount of self-improvement in this life or the next.