Ps 14:3b FROM WORTHLESS TO DIVINE

FROM WORTHLESS TO DIVINE

“There is none that doeth good, no not one.”

Ps 14:3b

What a devastating indictment! It does not matter at all whether we are compassionate or hateful; whether we are charitable or are selfish and self-willed. It does not even matter whether we are Christian or unchristian. No living soul can claim to be worth anything before God, not on God’s terms. He set down the rules by which we must live with Him and with each other. He set them down in the 10 Commandments, but none of us can keep them. That is why the Psalmist is correct in saying that in God’s eyes “there is none that does good.” The law only proves our worthlessness.

It all seems very hopeless, until God’s Holy Spirit enters our hearts. You see, it is only the Holy Spirit that can bring us to realize that we not only can do no good but that there is nothing we can do about it. One of the great temptations of the devil is to deceive us into trusting ourselves, and our well-meaing intentions and our achievements. He wants us to feel good about what we can do by ourselves. If he can succeed in that, what need is there to trust God? There can be no trust in the Lord until we abandon all trust in ourselves. The first step, and it is a big one, is that the Holy Spirit enters our hearts with these words of the Psalmist, ”There is none that does good.”

When we are brought to that conviction, the work of Jesus Christ shines like a bright light. There is indeed One that did good, namely, the Son of God who took on human form and shed His blood to make up for our lack of goodness. The heavenly Father says to you and me in His word: Trust Me, not yourselves. If I did not hesitate to spare My own Son for your eternal salvation, can you not trust me with everything in your life?

What a remarkable transformation! Once trust in the Lord replaces trust in ourselves, we are changed from sinners who can do no good to saints who do no wrong. Oh yes, we children of God sin daily and deserve nothing but punishment, but our sins are covered by the blood of the Savior and our lives are changed. Thankful faith now replaces selfish pride, and our hope of the future does not rest on what we can do for ourselves, but on all the wonderful things the heavenly Father continues to do for us.