God doesn’t grade on a curve.
In the decades of sharing my faith in Christ with incredulous friends, relatives or total strangers, there is a common sticking point for people in accepting the Gospel message.
It goes something like this, “Wait a minute. I’m a pretty good guy. I’m not a criminal or drunk. I’ve tried to live a good life. I haven’t got a ‘sin problem,’ like you imply. Oh sure, I lie a little bit, have inappropriate thoughts about women who are not my wife, I might fudge a little bit on my taxes, etc. But so does everyone else, God (if He exists) isn’t going to turn me away from Heaven over those ‘minor’ infractions.”
I felt that way once as well.
But then I learned that I was using the wrong standard for comparison. As long as I compared myself with other people, I’d always manage to come out better than some (e.g. Adolf Hitler) and not as good as others (e.g. Mother Teresa), but I didn’t see myself so “bad” as to deserve eternal banishment.
However, when it comes to the kind of “righteousness” that is required to enter Heaven, our standard of comparison must be God Himself.
Jesus said, in Matthew 5:19-21, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
So, why is it so hard to wrap our minds around God’s righteous standard? In a 2018 column I wrote:
“Suppose you were a fish, born and raised in the highly polluted Ganges River in India. You and your friends were going along just fine until one day a bewildered rainbow trout wandered into your neighborhood.
“The trout, accidentally dumped off by a passing ship, was obviously a long way from home and deeply disturbed. He approaches you and says, ‘Wow, the pollution in this river is unbelievable, how can you live like this?’ You look back, mystified, and say, ‘What’s pollution?’
“This place is home to you. It’s all you’ve ever known. But for that alien trout, raised in the pristine, crystal-clear waters of the Scottish Highlands, the Ganges looks, smells and tastes like a slow-flowing sewer. As a native fish, you would have nothing with which to compare your home environment — it all seems fine to you.
“Similarly, we’ve all been born into a sin-infused world, with nothing to compare ourselves against morally except billions of fellow sinners … But ultimately, the real ‘gold standard’ of comparison against which we will all be measured is the perfect holiness of God Himself — now that’s a challenge! Jesus raised the bar about as high as it can get, when he stated unambiguously, ‘Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’”
Jesus Christ can be compared to that hypothetical trout, “… who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond servant and being born in the likeness of men,” as written in Philippians 2:6-7.
He abandoned the pristine streams of Heaven and plunked Himself down into the sin-polluted river of Earth/ Not for His benefit, but for ours.
The Apostle John got a glimpse into Heaven and it shook him to his bone marrow.
He wrote in Revelation 1:12-18: “… I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and wrapped around the chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been heated to a glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
“When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.’”
So how, pray tell, can we ordinary humans measure up to such impossibly high standards? Stay tuned.
How About You?
Are you still trying to make yourself fit for Heaven by good works or religious observance? You’re in for some good news next week when we highlight one of the most theologically stupendous concepts in all the Bible.
A hint from 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.