Regarding your need for a savior.

21 September 2025

Dear Daughter,

She is known online as Nala Ray or Nala the Ninja. Perhaps you’ve heard of her, and perhaps not. She, like many young women before her, believed the lie that her body was nothing more than animated flesh, an object of lust to be used for generating money and earning validation.  

She set up an online subscription service where she posted pornographic content, and was very successful in amassing a large following and the fortune that often comes with it. She had the beauty, admiration, fame, and money that she sought, but, according to her own testimony, she felt…nothing. She did not feel fulfilled, or empowered, accomplished, or secure. She had come against the hard, unshakeable truth that we are all searching and longing for something beyond riches and success.  

By God’s grace, Nala came to faith in Jesus, repented of her sins, and deleted her online pornography business. She publicly came forward as a person who had been redeemed by the blood of Jesus…and was met with outright skepticism, contempt, and hostility.   

Dear Daughter, I’m not here to dissect Nala and her faith. I’m not here to put her under a microscope or trace her motives and sincerity. That has been done ad nauseam by others equally unqualified to do so. Since publicly coming forward, Nala has been second-guessed, condemned, and mocked. Time and again I have watched her baby-faith come under fire, and I have been convicted down to my very core. 

Because you see, precious girl, although I haven’t mocked Nala, although I haven’t participated in the vitriol being hurled at her, I have done it to others. I have crossed my arms and stood in smug judgement of other women who have turned from sin-soaked pasts and thrown themselves on the grace and mercy that can only be found at the feet of Jesus.

I have been the Pharisee, and my judgement of others has been as harsh as it was self-congratulatory.  

“Look at how well I’ve done,” my general smug attitude has said. “I’m so good. I follow the Lord and make good choices and look! Look at this incredible life I lead. Look at my relationship with God. Go me!” I’ve never said these words out loud, of course, but I have felt them, and I have lived them.  

Dear Daughter, I have led a life full of grace and protection. As a woman in America, I have had opportunities and advantages that are desperately longed for, and yet still completely unattainable for women in other parts of the world. I am highly educated, free to make decisions about my own life, and I have the right to vote as my intelligence and conscience dictate.  

In addition to that, I was born to loving parents who guided me to the best of their abilities and encouraged me to make good choices. I grew up in the embrace of a large, loud, warm family full of individuals who consistently loved and supported me, and finally, I was given a husband who adores me, works hard for our family, and generally makes my life one of comfort and security.  It has been easy for me to look at my beautiful life, my beautiful marriage, my beautiful children, and my beautiful home, and feel a sense of pride.

And that pride quickly became a seat of judgement.

There was one young woman in particular who I often fixated on. In many ways she was my exact opposite, and I took secret pleasure in picking apart her life and character. In my opinion, she made it easy. She hopped from man to man, and treated marriage like a “until something better comes along” kind of commitment. She loved to party, and although it was obvious that she loved her children, it was also obvious that she prized her own fun and desires above what was best for them. She made terrible mistakes, and I was only too happy to shake my head reproachfully and point them all out.

Then one morning, while I sat in my cozy home enjoying a slow moment of sipping my coffee and pursuing social media, I read something that she shared.

This woman spoke of her own bad choices and selfish decisions. She spoke about her childhood of sexual abuse and trauma, and about growing up fast and rough. She talked about the low view she had of herself, and how she used every bad decision and toxic choice to desperately try and fill the gaping wound in her heart. She was honest about her own selfishness. Honest about how the repercussions had unfairly spilled over onto her children. She owned the mockery she had made of marriage, and she mourned the hurt she had caused others.

Then, she spoke of God’s grace. Of His mercy and kindness. “I’m the woman at the well,” she admitted with simple frankness.   

She didn’t try to pad her credentials or fluff herself up. She was honest, brutally so. This was a woman who had grappled with her own wretchedness, who had come to terms with the ugliness of her soul, and had laid it all at the cross.

Reading her words had been like a kick to the gut. I always knew I was a sinner. This was a fact that drove me to my knees in repentance when I first came to faith in Jesus. However, that morning was the first time I really, truly realized that I am also not good.

And neither are you.

Dear Daughter, don’t get defensive on my behalf or your own. I know this goes against everything you’ve been told your whole life by this world. This is a truth we try to run from, argue against, and reflexively water down. We tell ourselves that we are a “good person.” We want our children to grow up to be “good people.” We value when someone’s “heart is in the right place,” even when they make a mistake.

People are capable of being kind, loving, and sacrificial. In the name of love, duty, and morality, people have done incredibly selfless and courageous things.

I, myself, have lived a life of measured choices and responsible, dutiful decisions. Without question I would sacrifice anything for the well-being of my children, up to and including my life. I have loved my family, served my friends, and given my time for the benefit of others.

But I also spent years gleefully shaming an anguished soul. I looked down from my ivory tower of protection and unearned grace, and quietly pronounced judgement on someone lost and hurting.  

What kind of person looks down from a table of plenty and mocks the hungry? Who revels in their own robust health while laughing at the bleeding wounds of another?

Sin is undeniably ugly. Sin covered in self-righteousness? Absolute soul rot.

Dear Girl, self-satisfaction and pride fall to the wayside very quickly once you glimpse the undeniable monster of sin which lies just beneath the surface of your own “goodness”.  

So here are some questions I was forced to ask myself that morning: What does it take to be “good?” How many good deeds must I do to cancel out the bad? How many volunteer hours must I complete to move the “good” side of the scale to a more favorable reading? How many orphans must I feed, how many Sunday school classes must I teach, and how many homeless people must I clothe to make up for even one heartless comment or contemptuous smirk?  

How do I scrub the shameful marks out of my soul when all I have are filthy hands?

Precious girl, we love to justify our own goodness by comparing ourselves to others.

I may have lied, but I’m not a murderer.

I may have gossiped, but I didn’t cheat on my husband.

I may have had premarital sex, but at least it was only with one person and not ten.

By looking at the fallenness of others, we reassure ourselves that we’re really not that bad. In fact, compared to some, we might even be good.  

But God’s Word disagrees because His standard is not other people, but rather just one person.  

We’re not called to be like Moses. God does not compare us to Ruth or Esther. Our character is not held against that of David, and our righteousness is not measured against Abraham’s.  

No, Dear One. God’s standard is much more rigorous. We are measured against the holiness of His one and only Son.

Jesus.

I’m willing to bet you’ve heard of Him.

Jesus, entirely God and entirely man, was able to live His life in a way we never could: flawlessly and sinlessly.  

He never lied. He never coveted. He was never selfish. He was entirely without fault or deformity of soul. While the entirety of mankind, both before and after Him, has been seduced and felled by sin, Jesus remained untainted and undefeated.

With Jesus as the standard of righteousness, goodness cannot exist in degrees. No, Dear girl, goodness exists only in polarity. You are either good, or you’re not, and the Bible is clear that we are not.  

“There is no one who does good. No, not one.” Romans 3:12

“For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

“The heart is deceitful above all else.” Romans 3:10

“They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; There is no one who does good.” Psalm 14:1-3

It is our sin, our complete inability to be good, that separates us from God and disqualifies us from goodness. We were created with the ability to choose, and since Eden we have always chosen sin.  

Jesus’s holiness, His perfect righteousness, is the antithesis of sin, and therefore He is what we can never be on our own: good.  

Sin, in any amount or form, is an affront to God; offensive and vile. Think of it this way, Dear One: Would you entertain an unrepentant thief? Would you have a war criminal over for dinner? Would you share secrets with a serial murderer? Would you be intimate friends with a known child rapist?  

Of course not!  

You wouldn’t want to associate with people guilty of such crimes, and it is somewhat the same with God, but so much more because He is holy. If we, as sinners, can find the behaviors and actions of others to be offensive, how much more is it for a holy and righteous God? And although some sins are far more heinous than others, ALL sin is an offense to God, and ALL sin disqualifies us from communion with Him.

So although we may desire to be good, when judged against the immaculate holiness of Jesus, we’re all just soul-sick beggars trying to convince ourselves that our rags are less tattered than those of our neighbors.  

Thankfully, although we aren’t good, the news is!  

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. Ephesians 1:7

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.  Romans 8:1

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

1 Timothy 1:15

Jesus, in his unfailing kindness and love, offers us His righteousness, we need only believe He is Lord and ask God to forgive our offenses. In fact, Jesus came to Earth specifically to live the holy life we couldn’t, take our sins upon His own flawless name, and bear the just punishment as a substitute for us. In doing so, our souls are wiped clean, our soul-cancer cured, and our relationship with God restored. Or as A.W. Tozer wrote: The only sin Jesus ever had was ours, and the only righteousness we can ever have is His.”

So you see, Dear Daughter, although we are not good on our own, we can be made good through the blood of Jesus. But though we receive forgiveness, restoration, rebirth, and communion with God, what we do not receive is credit. Saving grace does not allow for boasting or putting on airs. RC Sproul summed it up beautifully when he said: “Christians have nothing to be smug about; we are not a righteous people trying to correct the unrighteous. Just one beggar trying to tell another beggar where to find bread.”

The work of salvation is complete, but Jesus alone receives the glory and praise. Instead, we are free to live in the hope of God’s amazing grace and incredible love. We still must call that which is evil, evil, and that which is sinful, sin, but not with an air of derision and self-satisfaction. No, Dear One. When we call out sin, we must always do it with an air of sorrow and a beckoning to Jesus.  

And we must never forget to grieve our own sin first.

The Holy Spirit is at work in me, Dear Daughter, and my sanctification will be the work of a lifetime. On this side of Heaven, I will always wrestle with sin because I am not good.

But Jesus was and Jesus is, and He is enough.