Why Can't I Just Be a Good Person?

Central Idea: While being morally good is admirable, God’s word teaches that salvation is not achieved through our goodness or works, but through obedient faith in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

INTRODUCTION

Many sincere individuals ask, “Isn’t being a good person enough for God?”

Society equates morality with salvation, but the Bible presents a different standard.

According to God's Word, no amount of good deeds can substitute for faith, grace, and obedience to the Gospel.

OBJECTIVE

Good Works Cannot Erase Sin

Jesus is the Only Way to Salvation

1. Good Works Cannot Erase Sin

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Even our righteous deeds, if done apart from God, are as “filthy rags”

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Being good does not pay the debt of sin; only the blood of Christ can

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

2. Jesus is the Only Way to Salvation

1 Corinthians 15:1–6 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:12–19 ESV

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

CONCLUSION

Jesus explicitly says, “I am the way... no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

There is no salvation in any other name (Acts 4:12).

We must obey the Gospel—being baptized into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4).

Colossians 2:12 ESV

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Being “good” without Jesus is like having a clean exterior with no foundation—it won’t stand.

Being a good person is not enough to be saved because goodness, by human standards, falls short of God’s righteousness.

Salvation is a gift offered by grace and received through obedient faith.

Let us not rely on our goodness, but on God's grace through Christ, obeying His plan for salvation.