None of us are justified (The Good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37)

None of us are justified (The Good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37)
We live in a time where entertainment has become religion to some, people have become obsessed with their favorite shows, live streams, artist, and influencers. They keep up with them, they never miss an opportunity to see them, and they are literally addicted to what is coming next, the next big thing. Some of these shows revolve around ordinary people who compete for an opportunity to be come a star. A celebrity panel of judges spends months coaching, analyzing, and judging the performance of these individuals who just want to do is just prove they are the best and worthy of the top prize. In the parable on the Good Samaritan, it begins with someone who wanted to prove they was as worthy as any individual wanted to justify just how good he was before Jesus when he asked, “and Who is my neighbor?” (v.29) This expert in the law had just answered a question from Jesus on what he should do to inherit eternal life and he said, the greatest commandment from God was and Jesus said to love the Lord with all your heart first and foremost and to love your neighbors as your self secondly. (Luke 10:27-29)
The lawyer felt as if he loved God with all his heart but did not realize that he couldn’t love God with everything if he was not willing to love those around him. The Jewish people of this time did not like the Samaritans because they were a people of split race or biracial. They looked down upon them as almost less than human and unworthy to even acknowledge or communicate with. When Jesus gave a parable of a Samaritan as the hero, doing the right thing and the Jewish people in the story turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering of someone who had been abused, beaten and robbed the self-justification had to stop for the lawyer. He had been exposed as a hypocrite by his own words as he was unwilling to love his neighbor because of their ethnicity. This should be eye opening to all believers as it comes to the Kingdom of God, none of us are justified before God by our actions. We can not do enough good to earn justification, we can only obtain justification through our relationship with Jesus Christ. If salvation and eternal life was dependent upon what we can do for God, all of us would be doomed to eternal separation from God. Religion may justify us in our own eyes but only a relationship with Jesus Christ can justify us in the eyes of God.