100% God + 100% Man is 100%.

It's a familiar equation; I've heard it many times growing up. The way of salvation is simple: Jesus Christ, the Son of God on high, gave Himself as a perfect sacrifice. The ultimate sacrifice to fulfill the types of the past and redeem God's chosen people throughout time by its complete nature.

This is why Christians are not supposed to continue in ritual sacrifices. Because the blood of Christ is sufficient.

So why do we so often try to add to it?

In our attempts to add to the Cross, to somehow attempt to aid the omnipotent God in the final work of justification from all sin, we degrade this salvation.

God, we seem to think, needs our help.

Where does this lack of faith come from? Is it good intentions? Have we confused a life of indebted gratefulness with a life of indentured self-purchase? Certainly we are to imitate Christ, as Paul says in Ephesians 5:1.

And yet how can we possibly hope to attain to anything even worth contributing? Our righteousness is naught but filthy rags. Our very best is far from equal to God's standards of perfection.

The solution is simple.

We need to be still and know -- not just believe or trust -- but know that our Lord is God. (Psalm 46)

Anything less is unbelief or pride.

Isn't it better to rest in His sovereign hands?

"Where does the misunderstanding come from,
demanding that we be outstanding and then some?
Perfection never was a requirement, although some might say we desire it."