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The Great Scale Misconception

Human beings have within them a natural inclination to believe that when they appear before God to give an account for their life (and nearly everyone believes this), that God will grant them acceptance based upon how good they lived during their life—that is, morally good. The perspective can be viewed as the Great Scale.

People intuitively believe, whether they verbalize it or not, that when they appear before God, God will somehow be able to place all the good they ever did one one side of the scale, and conversely, all the bad done on the other aside of the scale. The thought is that God will somehow remove his hands and allow the scale to balance. If the good outweighs the bad, then eternal life is granted—in other words, it is earned. If, on the other hand, the bad outweighs the good—well, not so good. This scale perspective is not biblical. So what is the biblical view?

There is an interesting sentence in Proverbs that seems to point to this issue, and says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Pro 14:12 ESV). This passage appears to indicate that people’s natural inclination and perspective about obtaining eternal life through personal merit and measured conduct is, in the end, a road that leads to death.

The biblical perspective

To understand the correct perspective of our condition we must turn to the Bible. As already mentioned, the Bible is clear that all persons are sinners and fall short of the standard of conduct set by God. In fact, no human being can meet God’s standard because each of us has a sinful nature—and that sinful nature is part of who we are. Possibly no better summation of the sinful human condition is possible than a single quote provided for us in Isaiah, which says,

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6 KJV).

And because we are sinners we cannot, on our own merit, meet the righteous requirement of God. Furthermore, the Bible explains that no one is made right (justified) with God by doing good works (works of the law) or by being morally good. Consider just two passages that make this explicit (italics added).

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20 ESV).

In other words, our sins cause us to fall short of God’s requirement and cannot be the basis to earn everlasting life. Actually, the opposite is true. Our inability to meet God’s standard highlights our inability to earn eternal life. Our sin is the very thing that indicates for us that we cannot measure up and earn eternal life. Therefore, no one is made right with God simply by trying to live morally as Paul clearly says.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16 ESV emphasis added).

If then no one is justified by works and good deeds, how are people made right with God? Well, the passage that tells us how we are not made right with God also informs us how we are made right with God: simply put, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16 ESV emphasis added).

If then no person is justified and made right with God through being good and doing moral works, how are people made right with God through Jesus Christ? Great question!

Let’s look into the most important matter ever considered by human beings.