Imagine if you lived an average American life (77 years or 28,207 days) and you only had to be good 1% of the time to make it to heaven. By my math, 1% would be .77 years or 282 days. Think you could do it?
What if God forgave you for 99.9% of your sins and you only had to obey .1% of your life? That would be .077 years or 28.2 days. Love God and others perfectly for the month of February and you’re in! You in?
Fine, what if God did 99.99% of the forgiving and you only had to do .01% of the loving? That would be 2.82 days. Love God and others perfectly Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday and you’re saved! Sound good?
If not, what if God did 99.999% of the forgiving and you only had to do .001%? That calculates to 6.8 hours. Just be perfectly patient, kind, trusting, believing, forgiving, gentle, joyful, and at peace for one day at school/one shift at work/one day at home with the kids and you get to be with God forever.
Isn’t that crazy? Even if God did 99.999% of the work of forgiving you, it still wouldn’t be enough.
That’s why Jesus didn’t do 99.999% of the work. He did it all. “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).
Thank God for giving us a Savior who did 100% of the saving. That’s what makes the gospel such incredibly good news.
