A Common Criticism
A common criticism by people is that, they say, salvation is unfair to good people, and that salvation actually favors bad people more. What do they mean by that?
Because they are saying that a murderer, as long as he trusts in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, he can go to heaven. But their dear old Catholic grandma, for example, if she’s so faithful to the Catholic Church, but she did not trust in Jesus and she never committed murder, and she did good all her life. Having her burn in hell while that murderer goes to heaven just because of trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, that’s not fair.
Being Good…in Whose Eyes?
How do we deal with the question and accusation like that? We have to say it this way. That’s the wrong statement, because they automatically assume that their dear old Catholic grandmother is a good person. The Bible already shows something right here: no one is good. Go to Romans 3:23.
Romans 3:23 ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;’
Therefore, everyone is automatically a sinner. The Bible also says in Romans 3:10 and Romans 3:12 as follows:
Romans 3:10 “As it is written there is none righteous, no, not one:”
Romans 3:12 “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one.”
Although their grandmother is a good person, the Scriptures show that that’s the wrong statement.
But does that mean that the good old grandmother is not a good person? Here’s the answer. To us, she is a good person; she might be even better than the pastor and that murderer but that’s not how God defines a good person.
He is not looking at their grandmother in comparison to the murderer. He is comparing everyone to Him, because of what’s said in Romans 3:23.
Why does everyone sin? Because they fall short of the glory of God. Therefore, we can understand that it’s not a matter of good or bad in human eyes; it’s good or bad in God’s eyes.
This is the key to understand the issue here, because God never sinned even one time before in all his life, then surely the best living human would look like a rotten sinner in the eyes of God, when one compares that gap. The gap is so great, and that’s why I’m God’s eyes, he or she is a rotten sinner. We’ve got to understand that in God’s eyes, no one is a good person.
God’s standard Vs Human Standard
Here is another issue. People might say, he or she is a good person, and we might say that, but that person lied before, or that he or she did something wrong before (Who never thought a dirty thought before? Who never did something dishonest before in one’s life? etc.).
What then will today’s society respond to that? They’ll probably say, one might do those things but overall, he or she is a good person. We live in a day and age where people think that sodomites are good people. Why? Because they are not looking at that particular sin of sodomy as something really heinous and evil.
Likewise, for every person in this world, they don’t think that one dirty thought or one dishonest statement is that much of a big deal. That shows how wicked we sinners are, because we don’t make a big deal out of these so-called small or minor sins, but in the eyes of holy God, one sin is enough to be a heinous crime.
Let’s consider a simple question. If one committed one murder in one’s life, that’s enough to make him or her a really bad person. Why? Because he or she took that one particular action as something very heinous and evil. But there could be other people who might think the opposite. They might think that it’s just one action of murder, so it’s not a big deal; and it’s not like he or she is a very wicked person. Therefore, comparing one’s own views with human standards is not going to get us to anywhere.
The point is this: in God’s eyes, one action of sin is that much heinous to Him as murder. That’s how much He seriously takes sin. How seriously does mankind take sin? Compare one’s immoral actions from two hundred years ago. There are actions we commit that our forefathers two hundred years ago would think that’s really bad; but we wouldn’t think so today, we would think it’s just normal. That’s how we desensitized ourselves towards sin. That shows how less serious we take sin and that’s not a good sign. Let’s look at James 2:10.
James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
If someone thinks that they’ve kept the whole law and that they are good enough to go to heaven, this is the best verse to use. One time one breaking of the law is enough to make one guilty of all sins in the eyes of God. One sin is enough to break the entire law. It’s not a matter of unfair or fair in our eyes, because we are comparing ourselves to human standards. We’ve got to compare ourselves to the eyes of God. How does God think of it? Let’s look at Isaiah 64:6.
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities like the wind, have taken us away.”
The Anthill Gap
Our goodness or our so-called good works that we do is not even good enough in the eyes of God. In fact, it’s ‘filthy rags’.
Imagine that this person who got baptized and went to church, and lived a clean life all his or her life, and then God says, ‘all those years that you spent living good for me, living a good life, that’s no better than that filthy sponge over there that you are using to wash the dishes’. That’s what God thinks of our goodness. Why? Because he’s at Holy. Why would God think that way? Because He is God and we are human, and we’re PO different.
Let’s look at an easy example. An ant can work so many years and work really hard to make the best house, the best anthill, but in our eyes, is that a very nice home? No, we wouldn’t want to live there. We would think that that’s just messed up. But to the ants’ eyes, the ant will go, ‘how can you dare say that? I worked so hard to build this for years!’ To be honest, we would say, ‘sorry, but to me it’s not a really good house.’
Why? Because the ant is so much lower, a different gap, has a different nature than us human, who’s so much higher in the ladder and different. That’s how God is to humans.
God is so different from the gap, in fact He says that the earth is His footstool. Therefore, we are even smaller than ants. This should open people’s eyes that it’s not a matter of ‘I’m a good person so I deserve to go to heaven’. Because in the eyes of God one is not good enough to go to heaven.
There are so many verses that show that our goodness is not good enough. Look at Psalms 39:5, and Philippians 3:6-8. Psalms 39:5 says that, man at his very best state, is all together vanity.
Psalms 39:5 “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.”
In Philippians 3:6-8, Paul said that, all the righteous things he had ever done in his religion, as he was the best of the best in his Jewish religion, but he counted but ‘dung’. Why? For Christ, in comparison to salvation in Christ.
Philippians 3:6-8 “Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
The Deeper Problem
Let’s consider this question. Who’s more good? Us or God? The obvious answer is God. Therefore, wouldn’t it be fair to say, that when we receive God’s righteousness and God’s goodness, we are better than a person who lived all his or her life as a good or righteous person in his or her own way?
Of course, because when we take God’s goodness and righteousness, we are far more better than a person who lived good all of his or her life. When we look at God’s righteousness and one’s own righteousness, the gap is so great.
So why don’t we accept the righteousness of God? When people say that that’s not fair, and salvation is so easy, to accept the goodness and righteousness of God, but people keep insisting to reject it. That shows that it’s not a matter of fair or unfair, people are just being unreasonable, and they want to do what they want to do. So they are not actually really good people after all. They are being very dishonest and stubborn.
God gave us an offer which is so easy as a repentant sinner, all we have to do is just believe it by faith, just accept it by faith, then we will get the righteousness of God. But some people insist that no, they don’t want it and they’ll do it their way and they don’t think they deserve hell, especially after Jesus Christ died for us all. Then there’s a problem with those people.