“I’ve done enough for God.  I don’t have to do any more.”  “I’m doing all I can do for God. I can’t do any more.”  I suspect we all have felt this way at one time or another.  And perhaps, at that particular moment, we actually expressed that sentiment of doing or having done enough.  But, momentary feelings aside, at what point in our lives do we have the facts to correctly reach that assessment or the right to decide for ourselves that God doesn’t require any more of us?
     Can we say “I’ve done enough for God” as lost sinners before we regain a right relationship with God?  According to Ezekiel 18:20-22, God has an expectation from the lost sinner.  He expects the lost sinner either to remain disobedient and die, or else, to repent and live.¹  “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.  The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.  But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.  None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.”  God wants the lost sinner to listen to Him.  The New Testament records six times Jesus explicitly telling the crowds, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”  God thinks the lost sinner can do more and be more.  We should think so, too.
     Can we say “I’ve done enough for God” as new Christians with little knowledge and even less experience?  Peter writes in the first chaper of his second general epistle, 2 Peter 1:2-11, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.  For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.  Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  To those of us who appreciate our escape from being lost, he instructs us to diligently grow in knowledge and attitude and experience and maturity so that we may be productive.  God thinks the new Christian can do more and be more.  We should think so, too.
     Can we say “I’ve done enough for God” as older, mature Christians who have lived in service to God, but now must confront a loss of abilities & energies or perhaps find death knocking at their door?  As Peter sees the end of his life approaching, he takes care that his service to God goes beyond his physical death.  “For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth,” we read in 2 Peter 1:12-15.  “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.  Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.”  A few sentences later, verses 19-21, he points out that we cannot simply relax our submission to God’s word because “we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”  God thinks the mature Christian can do more and be more.  We should think so, too.
     Can we say “I’ve done enough for God” because we have always done our best and our best on its own was always more than adequate?  Paul plainly reminds us in his letter to the Roman church, Romans 3:21-26, that “now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.  For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”  God thinks every person can do more and be more.  We should think so, too.
     Actually, if we genuinely consider ourselves to be slaves of righteousness, to be slaves of God, then we’ve never had the right to tell God when we’ve done enough for Him.  Instead, God is the one who will tell us when we’ve done enough.  In Luke 12:35-48, Jesus explains our terrible fate if we dare to presume the right to live as though we’ve done enough for God.

    ¹ God’s use of “die” and “live” in Ezekiel chapter 18 refers to something other than physical death and life.  Verses 26-32 demonstrate that God is using “die” to describe how serious He views the situation.