What does 75% mean to you? 75%: normal, average - 75%: good enough - 75%: vote of confidence - 75%: sufficient ministry
Tell that to an athlete participating in
the World Olympics: “Just give it your 75%!”
Tell that to an astronaut: “This good old rocket will get you 75% to the moon.”
Tell that to a king: “75% of the people voted for you, so we’ll keep you on.”
Tell that to God: “I completed 75% of what you asked. You must accept that.”
God did not send his Son into the world so that he could make up the other 25% we were short. We are bankrupt! “They have all turned aside; they have become altogether unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:12).
God did not ask us to evaluate our own good deeds in order to justify ourselves before him. “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20).
If you attempt to please God by giving Him 75%, 80%, 90% or even 99% of your best effort, you will be mistaken, my friend. You must give up your entire life in order to be saved!
God does not want your best; He wants you to realize that all your goodness is as filthy rags before him. You are by nature wicked and deserve nothing but his wrath. You cannot be saved until you come to this realization. In God’s eyes, you can’t even earn a measly1% toward your salvation. But God, sending His Son, does what we cannot do. In what the flesh was unable to do, God did Himself. He sent his Only Son, Jesus Christ, to be the 100% righteous son we could never be. He became the 100% satisfaction for the payment due.
You can be 100% righteous with God if you come to know the Lord Jesus and trust in him for your salvation.
Oh, and for the smug self-righteous 75% Christians:
Luke 17:10: "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'" Luke 18:9: Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men - extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' 14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
- Chris Simonson
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