Only Jesus Can Make Us Right With God

One of the easiest things for us to do is explain away our own behavior. We know something is wrong, but instead of facing it, we find a reason for it. We tell ourselves why what we did was understandable. But explaining ourselves is not the same thing as making ourselves right with God.

Can I justify myself before God?

No, you and I cannot justify ourselves before God; only Jesus can make us right with Him.

I remember a little girl from a church we pastored. She was about eight years old, and her parents had told her to return from the lake in time for church. She came back late, and when they asked her why, she gave an answer I have never forgotten: “I justified myself.”

That little child described the human condition.

She had explained away what she had done. She had excused her own behavior. Let me tell you, that is what sin leads us to do. We think we can justify ourselves.

We do it when we are running from God. We find reasons. We make excuses. We convince ourselves that what we did was not really that serious.

But we cannot make ourselves right with God by explaining ourselves.

What does atonement mean for us?

Atonement means God has provided what we could never provide for ourselves.

During the Day of Atonement, the sins of the people were symbolically placed upon a scapegoat, and that goat was taken outside the city into the wilderness. The picture was of those sins being carried away where the people would no longer see them.

But the message is even deeper than that. You cannot save yourself.

I cannot save you. Mothers and fathers cannot save their children or grandchildren. No human being can do that work for another human being.

A sacrifice had to be made.

The good news is that God did not leave us to find our own way of paying for sin. Jesus is the Lamb who sacrificed Himself. The blood of Jesus can do what we cannot do for ourselves.

That is atonement. God provides the answer to our sin.

Why is Jesus the one who can make us right with God?

Jesus can make us right with God because He came from the Father to accomplish the Father's work.

Jesus said in John 7:28, “You both know me, and you know where I am from, and I've not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know.”

Jesus was making it clear that His mission did not begin with human beings. He came from the Father.

This mission belongs to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From creation, God's purpose has been to put things right. Sin and Satan have horribly messed things up, but Jesus came to put things right.

That is why Jesus could confront a religious system that made people think they had to pay their own price to get near God. When He overturned the tables in Jerusalem, He was confronting that very idea.

The message was not, “Pay enough and you can get right with God.”

The message was that God would provide the price.

Jesus Himself was that price.

What should I do instead of trying to excuse my sin?

Stop trying to justify yourself and receive what Jesus has already provided.

There comes a time when we have to quit explaining ourselves. We have to quit pretending we can correct the deepest problem in our lives through our own effort.

The trumpet call connected with the biblical feasts was a call to recognize that it was time to turn toward God. It reminded the people that repentance mattered and that atonement had been provided.

That is still the truth I want you to hear.

You cannot save yourself. But you do not have to save yourself.

Jesus came to do what you could not do. He came to make things right. Instead of hiding behind excuses, come honestly before God and recognize your need.

We all need the same thing. We need the One who alone can justify us.

Jesus has provided atonement. Jesus can make us right with God.