“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” – Proverbs 21:4

Don’t be deceived by the soft peddlers of the new religion. There are indeed some things that God hates. God hates pride, and the Bible doesn’t say one good word about it. God hates a proud look. But worse, are you trying to do good, plowing row after row of charitable works? This is admirable, perhaps, but why do you consider that it needs to be done? Why are things so broken? Why do men need charity at all? Neither be deceived by your own mind. The world is broken. By doing charitable things, you admit that. Why not just call it sin? That’s why everything is broken. There is none righteous, no, not one; sin has wreaked havoc across the globe for as long as men can remember. It may seem right to be involved in charity, but the ends thereof are death by charity alone.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” – Proverbs 14:12

The charitable works in and of themselves have no effect on your sin or on your eternal state, which is death. They might make you feel good, but the best you can conceive won’t save you no matter how right it feels to accomplish what are otherwise good deeds. The Almighty declares in Isaiah 55:8, “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” You will be judged, every man, according to your works. And then you will be found guilty. Marvel not; God knows your secrets.

“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” – Ecclesiastes 12:14

Holy God will bring every work into judgment and not simply the ones you think will tilt the balance or cover the multitude of your wickedness. There is no balance; the standard is holiness, and you can never appertain to it under your own efforts. You’ve done evil already; you, by your works, are guilty of sin. No law can justify the guilty, for you are ungodly before the law of God. The Almighty is the highest Lawgiver, the great and terrible Judge of the quick and the dead. You’ve got secrets so shameful that you would never dare to tell a soul, but God sees them all. Your works mock God, but the secrets reveal your true self to Him. Face it; you do evil without even considering any consequence. But the Judge of all creation will bring every work into account. You must know that, deep in your mind, why else would you be trying to be a good person on the outside. There is a judgment with every secret thing, both good and evil.

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” – Romans 4:5

But to him that worketh not? To him, that doesn’t try to cover his inequity with charitable deeds? How can this be? It seems so strange. God doesn’t go by what you hold out to be good and evil, correct or wrong. Self-righteousness is the biggest obstacle for many who otherwise would come to the fullness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus: to accept that God is God; that hurdle is pride. Your rules, your works, your own efforts at being good; do you see the problem? It’s you; it’s all about you, what you want, what you think and say and do, and how you measure yourself. That’s pride. God hates a proud look!

You stand this day before the Judge of all creation from whom you need mercy. Those needing mercy don’t proffer their resume of good deeds; that’s not mercy, it’s self-justification, that’s pride! You need forgiveness; you need God to be God, for you’re a mortal man hurtling toward an uncertain death with no natural way to be sure what comes next. Your body will give out and soon expire; you can’t stop it. You need the favor of God Almighty, the only true and worthy King. He wants you to have the grace of His complete and determinant pardon, which requires unconditional surrender by you, bringing a personal relationship through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not to him that tries to justify himself, but to him that believes on the God that has the power and authority to truly justify. God doesn’t justify the self-justified, the self-righteous, the baptized, the churchgoer, or the religionist. God doesn’t justify the kind, helpful, charitable, caring, and giving. God justifies the ungodly. You need Him; there’s no other way, no other truth, no other life eternal but by Christ Jesus.

Salvation is not because of who you are or what good things you do, but because of who He is. For He is the God of all glory who created things seen and unseen, things known and unknown, the bringer of revelation yet to come, the provider of all for all, the One that makes it rain on the just and the unjust alike; it is God that justifies the ungodly.

He is God, and you are not. Only God could make a way that doesn’t count deeds, but one of pardon to those that are doubtless guilty for the sin which reigns unto death, even the death of your soul. But to them that believe in the power of Christ Jesus, your faith can be counted for righteousness. Do you get that? Your deeds cannot justify, but your faith can be counted for righteousness! You can be taken from sin and death trying to be good enough to justified by belief and further made righteous by faith! This isn’t mere pardon; this is complete restoration above the prior estate through resurrection unto eternal life. This is the grace of God Almighty, to save that which was lost, who is calling all that would come by faith unto the glorious salvation in Christ Jesus.

Someone godly paid your way. Jesus Christ, the virgin born, only begotten Son of the living God, was crucified, executed in the most brutal ways that you, an ungodly prideful wicked sinner, might be made free from the works of self-justification. As of a precious Lamb without spot, Jesus’ blood was tendered. Your debt has been paid in full. Jesus did no sin because there was no sin in Him. That’s how He is ample payment for you. His works, His good deeds were all good, and there were no secrets between Him and Father God, no accounts to settle. This way, He can cover your sin by His blood and wipe away your ledger with God because, you being ungodly, but Jesus Christ being worthy of God, He took your place being reckoned among the transgressors, yet He was without sin, that you might be made righteous in Him. He died for the ungodly; the just for the unjust. He died for you.

Jesus Christ dying for you according to the Old Testament scriptural prophecies was God’s plan. Accept Him as payment. Here’s the best part, though; he didn’t stay dead. Jesus wasn’t just another guy that spoke of love and kindness and then died? No, He rose again from the grave the third day just as He said He would. He was seen by dozens and dozens of witnesses after His resurrection and was even seen of above 500 brethren at once, declaring, “…Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

“Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:11-14

Without merit, you can have the forgiveness of sins, being bought with His blood, redeemed. God, having created and made you, can translate you out of the kingdom of death and hell, into the kingdom of His own Son, with all saints being made fit to see God face to face, not guilty but full of thanksgiving to behold His glorious power which strengthens us with His might, only to find that God is love to those that love Him enough to come to Him by faith. We love Him, because He first loved us. It’s God that justifies the ungodly.