A common question people have about God is why doesn’t God simply save all the good people?
Why is he so adamant about only saving those with faith in Jesus?
Isn’t that a bit exclusive?
On top of that, aren’t there some really good people who deserve to go to heaven?
When I was in High School I had a good friend who was not a Christian – in fact he was an atheist. But he was better mannered, better behaved, and conducted himself better that most of us Christians. Surely, God should save him too?
The Bible’s bold claim
Well, the Bible definitely does say in many places that only faith in Jesus can save anyone from God’s judgment.
For example,
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
(Acts 4:12)
This is a bold and exclusive, and some would say arrogant, claim.
Again, wouldn’t it be better, easier and more fair, for God to simply save all the good people? After all, aren’t there loads of really good people in the world?
The scales of goodness
We tend to think of goodness in terms of scales. We imagine that if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds we’ll be ok with God. We then categorize other people also according to their different levels of goodness.
Mother Teresa is on a very high goodness level, and people like Adolf Hitler on an extremely low level.
As long as we’re on the top half of the good thermometer, we think we should be in God’s good books.
In geographical terms, Mother Teresa’s goodness level is the top of Mount Everest, Adolf Hitler’s level is the bottom of the ocean. Perhaps our own goodness level is halfway up Mount Everest? Surely anywhere above sea level should make it to heaven?
The Bible brings us back down to earth.
According to the Bible, if we want to rely on our goodness to get us to heaven, we need to be perfectly good from the day we were born till the day we die.
If we want to rely on our goodness to make us acceptable to God, we need to be absolutely perfect because God is absolutely perfect.
The Bible tells us that even one sin is enough to keep us out of God’s presence forever. Just one sin is a cosmic offense to God’s utter holiness and deserves his judgement.
In fact, the Bible tells us that there are no good people is the world at all.
None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.
(Romans 3:10-12)
The problem with trying to be good enough to get to heaven, is that no-one is good enough for God. Not even Mother Teresa.
We have an insurmountable dilemma. None of us are good enough.
The Only Good One
However, the scandalous news the Bible tells us is that someone was good enough for God – the Lord Jesus.
Our disobedience, sin and rebellion against God deserves his judgement; but the Lord Jesus who was the obedient, sinless and perfect, died in our place to bear the judgment that should be ours. When we put our confidence in Jesus to save us, our sins are forgiven and we are accepted by God – in this world and the next.
Christianity is not for good people; it’s for people who realise that they are not good. Christians put their confidence, not in their own goodness, but in the only one who was good enough for God, the Lord Jesus.
If God based his decisions on fairness, no-one would be saved as it would only be fair for us to receive his judgment on our sin.
But God operates on the principle of undeserved kindness.
The True Christmas spirit
Hollywood movies tell us that at Christmas we rediscover the inner goodness we each inherently have. The Bible is much more realistic. The Bible tells us that even our very best is not good enough and that’s why God sent a Saviour.