A hopeless endeavor: “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:3. From the beginning of the world, man has never ceased to labor with his own wisdom to span the impassable gulf that sin has fixed between himself and God. Luke 16:26. The philosopher imagines reason will do the trick; the moralist clings to his virtues; the religionist multiplies ceremonies and traditions. All alike engaged in the same hopeless task.
And although their methods differ, they share one ruinous feature that every human scheme to reach God has in common which is to deflate God’s holiness and inflate man’s worth. The holiness of God must be softened, the corruption of man must be excused, until at last the two might appear capable of meeting somewhere in the middle. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Psalm 50:21. The gospel exposes this as both blasphemy and folly. God cannot be lowered, nor man exalted, without destroying truth itself. To diminish divine holiness is to deny God; to flatter human dignity is to deny sin. No bridge built on such lies will ever stand. Job 8:13-15.
The gospel moves in an altogether different direction. It does not call men to scale heaven by their own efforts, nor does it reduce the Almighty to a mere collaborator in man’s redemption. Such corruption reshapes “salvation” into a bargain struck between God and man, making the sinner appear as a partner rather than a condemned malefactor. This is to overturn the very nature of grace, for grace ceases to be grace the moment it is mingled with works. Romans 11:6. The sinner is not God’s associate in redemption, but a guilty wretch for whom the ransom was paid. The gospel declares that God Himself has come down in Christ, not to meet man in the middle, but to stoop to him in the very depths of his ruin. Anything less is not gospel but fraud, dressing human pride in the garments of religion. At the cross we behold holiness upheld, justice answered, mercy exalted, and salvation poured out as a free gift of grace. Where every human scheme collapses, the work of Christ triumphs. Here “reconciliation” is not manufactured but accomplished, by grace alone, in Christ alone. MPJ