“I have done more good works than you,” said a mother to her daughter who was sharing the gospel to her. As the mother was truthful, it frustrated the daughter who was my friend.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” my friend sighed.

If it’s a contest of good works, who’s the judge? You can’t be the contestant and the judge as well. The judge must be someone higher than us. That’s why panelists are often higher than the contestants. They are respected and recognized as experts. I say often because to this day, I don’t know how they choose the judges in beauty contests. (What is he doing there?) And we all have heard how winnings can be rigged. A corrupt nature that has not been to heaven does not have the spiritual ascendancy to judge works good enough for a permanent residency in heaven.

Besides, what makes a work good? Because others have been helped? But are they really? Maybe they are being helped so the helpers can help themselves? Who will ever admit to doing bad works anyway? “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” (Pro. 21:2, ESV)

The state of our heart matters. It’s akin to someone helping us sincerely or grudgingly. The end result may be the same but whose help will you appreciate more? So it’s not so much the work, but the motives. And who can truly see the heart? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. (Jer. 17:10, ESV)

Because He alone can search both the heart and test the mind, He alone can judge. So what He says goes. And He said that whatever good we have in us are “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Basahan na nga na pamunas ng madumi tapos mismong basahan kadiri to death pa sa dumi. So ano ang puwede nating ipagmalaki?  

To be proud of our good works and to compare them with others is like saying, “My filthy rags are better than yours.” Like the mother in our introduction, the statement may be true but the rags are still filthy. Nobody will wipe their face with them still.

The judge also said that there is “no one (that) does good, not even one.”(Rom. 3:12, ESV) So uwian na?! Lock the doors! The judge has also given the mechanics to “win.”

He said we can all be winners by repenting of our sins and believing that His Son is THE ONLY way to heaven (John 14:6). Jesus Christ’s perfect obedience unto death is the only work God calls good when He who was without sin was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). He died in our place on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24) so that we might live if we confess our sins and accept Jesus Christ as the ONLY Lord and Savior. That was good enough for the Father. If it’s good enough for Him, it’s good enough for you and me. Walang dagdag, walang bawas.