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Appeasing a guilty conscience?

Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. (Romans 10:1-4)

Could we substitute "Israel" for anyone we know, including ourselves? It is likely we know someone, (or are someone), who has a great deal of enthusiasm for the 'things of God' but lack a personal relationship with him. They are 'rule-followers' at best, kind of hoping all the 'good deeds' they manage to accomplish on this earth will somehow find them favor with God. They 'refuse to accept God's way' - always trying to 'get right' with God through what they 'do'. We get this all wrong - doing follows faith. Doing doesn't equate to faith. It is the outflow of faith.

All who believe in are made right with him. Have you heard the adage, "No good deed goes unpunished"? Well-intentioned actions don't always lead to good outcomes, do they? In this world, we cannot just rely upon our good deeds to get others to appreciate or like us, can we? In our workplace, we cannot just go about doing good things and expect our boss will take notice, promote us, and give us a raise, can we? If we are brutally honest here, good deeds or positive actions don't always return good things our way. 

Faith in Jesus and right standing with God is not 'acquired' - it is 'given'. God gives us the faith to believe that he is the one true God, and that his Son gave his life for our sins, making a way for each of us to enter into his family by faith and not works. All good actions flow from us being 'made right' with God. Faith is the beginning of a heart change, and that heart change produces good works. Until the heart change is made, all the 'good works' we can muster on this earth are merely a way of appeasing a guilty conscience. Just sayin!
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