A good man is hard to find

[On your deathbed, you will say,] “I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”
-Proverbs 5:14

Hopefully, this day will be a long way off still, but I can almost picture my funeral. I don’t know who will be there. You never know what friends you’ll keep and which ones you will gain over time. I don’t have children yet, but I imagine that I’ll have some children who will come. I’m hoping to draw a little crowd. I’m not greedy – it doesn’t have to be a lot.

The pastor will say something about how dedicated I was to the church. After all, by that time I will have been writing about Proverbs for decades. I was always there, ready to help out. He will talk about the great books on the faith that I have written (or will write at this point). He will talk about my devotion to spreading the Gospel and to my family. My daughter will be so distraught that she will be overcome with tears at this time. He will say that I was a GOOD MAN.

Two or three people will stand up then to speak. Each one will have personal stories to tell, many of them funny to lighten the mood. Then they will speak of how they will miss me, but that I am in a better place. I was a GOOD MAN, they will say.

And they will be LYING.

The scene in before the throne of God will be much more accurate. All my thoughts, words, and deeds, will be laid out before me, and there will be far more bad than good. How many times will my own lust be shown to me? How many times my hatred? How many times my greed? My ambition? My selfishness? How many lies? How many hateful words? How many moments of covetousness? How many times when I sought my own goals rather than God’s? How many times when I loved myself more than I loved others?

We have such low standards for a GOOD MAN. We think someone who gives a little money to charity and seems to love his wife is a GOOD MAN. We think that someone who goes to church every week and seems to have his life together is a GOOD MAN. We think that someone who occasionally seems giving is a GOOD MAN.

If that’s the standard you are relying on, let me fill you in to God’s standard of a GOOD MAN. He will judge your every thought to see if you loved Him with everything you have and that you loved other people as much as you loved yourself. How are you going to do against that standard?

A lot of us are going to be faced, at the end of our lives, with the understanding that we were not good in the least. We are going to be faced with shame and regret. I pray that you face that shame sooner rather than later.

Not that you can fix it. You can’t. You’ve already rejected God. You’ve already decided that you are more important than everyone else. But you can be forgiven.

We deserve death by our sins, but when Jesus died on the Cross, He paid the price that was meant for us. He died so that we may live. In repentance and faith we will find life when we deserved death.

It is a gift from God against the worst of sins, and also those little thoughts that no one knows about but you. It is a gift against murder and blasphemy, but also those things we usually ignore, like gossip and pride.

It is His gift of life, a gift that cannot be earned.