No Hope If Left to Myself

Left to myself, there would be no hope of my ever being back in God's favor, because there would be no hope of my ever paying the debt I owe to His justice.

- Adapted Excerpt from Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade

CAN I MAKE THIS PAYMENT FOR GOD'S JUSTICE MYSELF?

• Certainly not.
• Actually I increase my debt every day.

Isaiah 64:6-7

• We are all infected and impure with sin. 
• When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.
• Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.

• Therefore you have turned away from us
• and turned us over to our sins.

Romans 3:19-20 

• Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given,
• for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses,
• and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.

For no one can ever be made right with God 

• by doing what the law commands.
• The law simply shows us how sinful we are.