This tract focuses upon the oft heard declaration, “All I want from God is a fair deal,” and exposes the folly of it. In fact it is declarations like this that clearly manifest the fact that the one who says it is banking on his relative righteousness to be his ‘ticket to heaven.’ In focusing upon the “fair deal” thinking, this tract takes Romans 2:3-4 and confronts the reader with the error and folly of his thinking. It appeals to him to change his mind like God tells him to do, and then it presents to him the only way that he can ever have the perfect righteousness that he needs in order to escape the judgment of God — i.e. as a gift of God freely given to him in response to faith in Christ as his all-sufficient Savior.

"All I want from God is a fair deal." That is often how people respond when they are faced with the fact that they will be judged by God one of these days. By a "fair deal" they mean that they want God to evaluate them on the basis of how they have lived their lives in comparison to how other people have lived. They know that they have not been involved in heinous sins, committed any horrible crimes, or lived completely wicked and evil lives. Hence they expect God to take note of their relative righteousness and goodness compared to the unrighteousness of others, and that He will judge them accordingly.

Others expect God to be fair by at least weighing all the good things they have done against those times that they have sinned. Since they are more good than bad, they think that such a "fair deal" from God will find them unworthy of being condemned by Him.

But is getting a "fair deal" from God really a good thing? And how about you? Are you sure that is really what you want?

Bad Idea

On the surface it may sound like a good thing, but in truth it is one of the worst things you could ever hope for, or get. This is because the criterion that God will use when He judges you is not your righteousness compared to that of other people. Instead it will be your righteousness compared to His. And that is not a good thing for you, or for anyone.

You know full well that God's righteousness is perfect, while what you have is far from it. Therefore hoping for and getting a "fair deal" from God is the surest way for you to guarantee that He will have to condemn you to everlasting punishment.

In view of this, God urges you not to persist in this kind of thinking. In truth, your own relative righteousness will not help you one bit in God's day of judgment. For this reason God earnestly exhorts you to change your mind about that. Listen to what He says to you:

³ And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

⁴ Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:3-4)

As God says, you will not be able to escape His judgment by your relative righteousness. Any measure of betterness that you think you have compared to others will not do you one bit of good at all. And by His very goodness in telling you this, God is leading you to change your mind and think differently.

The Truth of The Matter

What you need to realize is that your only hope of escaping God's judgment is in God Himself providing you with a way of escape. And this is just what He has done through the work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He died upon the cross of Calvary in your place.

You see in order for you to escape the judgment of God you not only need God to forgive you all of your sins, but you also need Him to give you His perfect righteousness in the place of your own imperfect righteousness. Moreover you need God to do all of this for you for free, because you cannot do any of it yourself. But here is the good news. This is exactly what God is able and willing to do for you because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did when He died upon the cross.

²⁴ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

²⁵ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

²⁶ To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26)

Through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God provided for saving you from having to be condemned by Him because of your sins and your imperfect righteousness. Jesus Christ took your place on the cross of Calvary and died as your substitute-Redeemer. He was "delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification," just as Romans 4:25 says. And in view of what He has done for you God is able to freely forgive you all of your sins and give you His perfect righteousness as an absolutely free gift of His grace. God Himself has become your all-sufficient Savior, and He offers to save you freely by His grace.

The only condition that God has placed upon saving you is that you yourself believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your all-sufficient Savior. As the Apostle Paul declares, God is "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

When you believe in someone, you depend upon him and his ability to do something for you that you cannot do for yourself. And that is just what it means to "believe in Jesus." Instead of depending in any way upon yourself or your own works to save you, you choose to depend completely upon the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ as all that you need for your salvation.

Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, why not do so right now and escape the judgment of God? — K. R. Blades