I think the mentality of most Americans is that if you just try hard enough, you can do anything and you can be anything. Not so. As a pastor once said, no matter what expensive Air Jordans he wears, he will still be a fat slow white guy on the basketball court. As much as I want and will it, I will never dunk on a regulation-sized goal. At least not in this reality. You and I can’t do and be anything, but we can be exactly who God made us and do what He made us and called us for.

We’ve mixed up a sort of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type mentality with the gospel. The result is that if I try harder, read my Bible more, pray more, witness more, and do more, I can please God. If I jump through these holy hoops and say the right words, God will like me more.

That begs the question. How good is good enough? Will my best ever be enough? The answer is a fatal blow to our pride. We can’t be good enough, because the best of what we have to offer is what the apostle Paul referred to as “filthy rags.” In other words, disgusting. We will never be good enough.

The good news is that Jesus is good enough for both Himself and for you. His whole life was one of perfect obedience and pleasing God. He did what we couldn’t. He came to us when we couldn’t get to Him. He took the punishment for every wrong we’d ever done, every good intention gone bad, every attempt to please God that failed miserably.

Now God looks at us and sees all the goodness of Jesus. There is no need in trying over and over to do what Jesus already did. All we do is surrender and receive and say thanks. That’s a pretty good description of growing in grace– surrender, receive and say thanks.

The good news is that we don’t have to find a way up the mountain to God, but that God has come down the mountain to meet us where we are in the valley and live with us and laugh and cry with us. We couldn’t be like Him, so He became like us. Only He did it perfectly. The best news is that we get credit for His perfection and God has declared it as ours.

The gospel says that thanks to what Jesus did when He died on the cross and rose again, we are now good enough. You are pleasing to God. So surrender your own efforts to be good enough, receive what Jesus did, and live a life that shouts “THANK YOU!” in everything you do and say.

That’s all.