ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION
We all ask good questions. Sometimes we just don’t ask the right one, and the answer we need gets lost without us realizing we missed the mark.
Many people today live their lives very casually. They mind their business, some smile at strangers, and others even help the needy bystander for no better reason than believing it’s the right thing to do. Even nonreligious folks.
So I want to ask two new questions for you to contemplate:
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Does a good person really need Jesus in order to go to heaven?
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Does a person need Jesus in order to be good?
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
Many nonreligious people have a loving quality they try to keep safely tucked away in a lifestyle not demanding holiness (Leviticus 19:2). There’s an unspoken message their anti-spiritual reticence gives off which sounds like, “I want to be good, just in my own way.” But what comes into question is: Who then defines what is good?
I’ve written about subjective and objective morality which you can read here, but the purpose of asking the above type of question is really to better understand who we believe is in control of our lives, down to our morality. Since our morality impacts everyone around us, we cannot view a person’s goodness as though it’s based on opinion, because opinions change; but what is objectively good, doesn’t.
MAKE SENSE OF YOUR BELIEFS
We can believe what we want about goodness and call it what we will, but that doesn’t mean what we believe actually makes any sense. And if we won’t seriously reflect on the senseless foundations of our beliefs, we may be living out a farce for a life and strapping a pretty mental bow on top to help us pretend to at least enjoy its appeal while we ignore the fact that everything we believe in is founded on irrational, fundamentally flawed thinking—and worse, obstinance (hard-headedness).
THE REALITY OF SIN REGARDLESS OF BELIEF
So, if a person already knows how to love without believing in God, what’s really the difference between a believer and a nonbeliever? Well, first off, no one is actually good (Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3). We all fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). No one is righteous in their own right. And to answer the question, the difference is—most importantly—in the heart: we’ve chosen death, and our sins’ wages are upon us (Romans 6:23).
But I don’t believe in sin, Lance. Understood. Here’s the catch: Denying the existence of sin doesn’t erase it from existence, just like denying God is real doesn’t make Him unreal; just as our denial of certain painful experiences which may have caused us to make decisions we’d rather not think about doesn’t erase those regrettable moments from causing the damage they have.
Again, we’ve all fallen short. We’ve all sinned. We can ascribe sin a different name, but it is still the same thing underneath: it separates us from God here in this life, and without Jesus as Lord, it’ll separate us from Him in eternity, too. Whether you believe you’re good or not, you need Jesus because of your sin.
WHAT JESUS ACTUALLY CAME FOR
The “damage” we’ve caused ourselves—and others by the way—is the physical manifestation of the reality of sin. We can say there is no such thing as sin, but when we take a closer look at the corruption in our world, the decay of our planet, the carelessness of people who live for money and not for eternity and how those variables (among many, many others) all add to the pain, suffering, and misery we are each subjected to regularly, we’re forced to think differently about the possibility that sin isn’t merely religious parlance, it’s a word for a very real thing; something that furthers us from intimacy with God, which is the sole purpose for which we were all created.
In fact, it’s the only reason Jesus came: to spread the Gospel message, and to die to pay for our sins (something that would be moot if He wasn’t God in the flesh) so we could be intimate with God.
BENEATH OUR STRENGTHS WITHOUT JESUS
What’s my point? Let me break it down.
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Being a “good” person without Jesus, doesn’t save anyone eternally.
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Being generous, without God, makes us boastful.
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Being loving, without Jesus, makes us haughty. (e.g. “I do this and that and so I’m not so bad”)
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Without Jesus, we are cold to the truth that there’s more to showing kindness than merely being good; it’s believing in the reason kindness is itself, good, which requires belief in an objective good—since unconditional, Christ-like kindness is incoherent with an ideology rejecting God, who is love (1 John 4:8), and who never changes (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8) (unlike human, subjective goodness, which always changes).
Without Jesus, there is no legitimate reason to uphold godly qualities. “Just because” is a cul-de-sac and it resolves nothing in the conversation. The disciples didn’t die horrific deaths “just because”, they did it based on the bold faith that witnessing the resurrected Christ gave birth to. Why would anyone be good “just because”?
BELIEVING IN GOODNESS WITHOUT AN ORIGIN
Think about it. Showing any form of goodness means we believe certain things are good, but that indicates we have an inherent belief about objective goodness—meaning, a goodness that transcends opinion. So when we say we don’t need Jesus, or that we don’t believe in (or question believing in) God—that’s deception. Self-deception, to be more specific. We’re claiming to believe in objective goodness while rejecting the idea of a sovereign, holy God because really, the raw truth is that we believe what we believe because we want to believe it—not because it makes any sense, because it doesn’t.
CONSIDERING JESUS AS SERIOUSLY AS HE DID YOU
God says the person who claims there is no God is a fool (Psalm 14:1). Jesus stated that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to God the Father but by Him (John 14:6). He says those who are ashamed of Him will cause Him to be ashamed of them in front of the Father and all the heavenly hosts when He returns (Luke 9:26). This isn’t a metaphor, a joke, or religious parlance. It’s just biblical truth. We aren’t good people without Jesus. We don’t go to any good place when we die without Him as our Lord. And if you’re wondering why Jesus should be your Lord, it’s because He died for you while you were in your sins, when He didn’t have to, and paid your sins’ wages. (Romans 5:8) All of ours, in fact.
But… His payment is declined if we reject Him. When we’re “good” people without Christ, we’re sinners in massive spiritual debt—whether we accept that or not.
SUBTLE FORMS OF IDOLATRY
Most of us reject Him for the sake of choosing to live in sin, even if the sin is idolizing anything under Him in creation, which is against the first commandment (you shall not have other gods besides Him).
We could be addicted to being busy (serving people) but then we’d be all about being busy and not at all about personal intimacy with God through Christ. We can be all about giving, but then we’re fixated on our ability to give instead of having joy in knowing it is God who is giving to us to give to people, and it has nothing to do with us; it has to do with God’s character as a Giver and our reflection of His nature. There are so many subtle idols… it’s not always drugs, alcohol, sex, or gambling (among others). Sometimes, it’s less obvious but just as spiritually deadly because it cuts God out without us realizing we’re doing that, and it’s all in the name of “Well I’m a good person.”
ERRANT BELIEF SYSTEMS
Believing we’re good people because we do things that we and others may consider to be good only points to our belief in the coherence of objective morality and goodness. But since these originate from a real, eternal Source, we’re ultimately just denying God while believing in the fruit of His existence. That’s like believing computers are real and trusting that they generate code (the “outpouring” of something that’s real), but disbelieving the fact that computers and code being real indicates a code maker and computer creator. It’s silly and foolish.
FOOLISH THINKING LEADS TO HELL
What’s more disturbing is that when we’re living in denial by denying our denial, God calls us a fool for not considering more seriously what’s right in front of our noses. He’s right. We live out the belief that we’re good all the while He waits graciously for us to come to Him for relationship, despite our arrogance in living as though He’s not just invisible, but unreal.
THE ONE DECISION THAT TRUMPS THEM ALL
If you’re not a believer and you’re reading this, I hope this article reaches you in a way you haven’t been reached before. I pray you find yourself addressed without feeling condemned. My desire is that you would be challenged without feeling criticized. That you would consider these concepts without presupposition (meaning, assumptions about things before you understand them), and that you will ask yourself for sincere answers by contemplating the genuine reasons for your beliefs first, no matter how painful that reflection process is.
I pray that God speaks to you, even if it’s the first time you’re hearing Him, and that you would give yourself to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Messiah today, and live—not as though you were already good, but in acknowledgement that we are all sinful, and that only by Jesus’ blood do we become good (and holy) like God is good by receiving by faith the Gospel truth that Jesus paid for your sins, and that you can have relationship with a real God simply by calling on the name of Jesus.
What a powerful and timely reminder!