"I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you." (Isaiah 57:12)
If God exposed everything that you do in secret, how good would you look? In this verse, God was rebuking the ancient Israelites, who had become so evil that He referred to them as the "children of a sorceress" and the "offspring of adulterers and prostitutes" (Isaiah 57:3). They were worshipping idols and performing child sacrifices, yet they still thought that they were good enough to be right with God. However, before we condemn them for what they did, let's take a look at ourselves. Are they any different from the Christian college student who sacrifices her unborn child on the altar of convenience through abortion? Are they any different from the youth minister who seduces young women and watches endless hours of porn, yet still thinks that he is worthy of God's calling? Are they any different from the pastor and wife who sacrifice their marriage and family via divorce to the idols of selfish ambition? Is today's church truly a light to the world, or have we become the children of sorceresses, adulterers, and prostitutes?
Let me make a couple of things clear: we are not saved through good deeds. We are saved through a relationship with Jesus Christ, which can only be gained through turning away from our sin in our heart and accepting Him as our Savior. In addition, even when we are saved, we will screw up once in a while. This is because our transformation through the Holy Spirit is not complete until we are dead. That being said, people who consistently and deliberately commit acts of evil, while putting on a facade of superficial righteousness, will be exposed for the fakes that they are. In fact, the Bible strongly suggests that people who act like that are not truly saved at all, even though their origins may be in the church (1 John 2:19). So before you brag about how holy and righteous you are, take some time to truly examine your heart and your deeds. Include the ones that you think no one knows about. You know, the ones which God may decide to reveal if you keep doing them in secret. After that, ask yourself the following question: what do my deeds reveal about my faith?
