Meet Daijah Padilla

Everyone will stand before God and face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Most of us would consider ourselves “good” people. But how confident are you that you would pass God’s judgment? Proverbs 6:16-19 tells us what God hates, what make us guilty of sin before Him: eyes that are arrogant, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a mouth that lies under oath, and a troublemaker in the family.

Still feeling confident? If we’re honest, we’re all guilty of at least one. So then, how much good do we have to do in this life to be declared innocent before God?

God will judge each of us based on our own works (Romans 2:6). He will not judge our deeds in comparison to the deeds of others. He will judge based on His standard, which is perfection. This means we’ve already fallen short, and no amount of good works can erase our imperfection. On our own, we can never meet God’s standard. We have all been self-seeking and at some point knowingly done something that we knew was wrong. Because of this we deserve wrath, fury, tribulation, and distress (Romans 2:8-9). It doesn't matter who we are; we are all equal in God’s eyes, and His judgment of us is unbiased (Romans 2:11).

God’s standard is perfection. We’ve already missed the mark, and the penalty we deserve is death.

But wait, there is good news! God already knew we were going to fall short, make mistakes, and rebel against Him. And because He is a kind and loving Father, He provided a way for us to be made blameless and spend eternity with Him. That way is Jesus Christ.

Jesus willingly died a death He did not deserve to pay our penalties. Jesus’ death on the cross paid for every wrong we would ever commit—past, present, and future. There is nothing Jesus can’t cover. Alone, we cannot stand before God and be good enough. But because of Christ alone, we are made good enough.