Last night during our mock conversation between an unbeliever and a believer there was an interesting question that Greg raised about doing good things. He wondered if he could just not have to deal with believing in Jesus and simply do good things and he would make it to heaven. I'd like to take that question a little further and hear how you guys would respond to such a question if it were raised to you because it is such a common question and it demands a good answer. First off, let's just be clear that getting to heaven is not the goal of our Christian faith and practice. Getting people to heaven is not God's goal and therefore it cannot be our goal either. It seems that I have to repeat this fact over and over again because it has been so entrenched in our thinking to believe that entrance into heaven is the goal that it is hard to believe otherwise. The goal is redemption of a messed up creation and created order. Heaven is merely a short stop on the long journey towards the final result of that redemption. So, let me restate the question (assuming that going to heaven is not the goal of being a Christian): if we spent the majority of our time and energy loving others around us and doing good works then why would we need Jesus in any way to experience salvation?
Your thoughts?
5 comments:
I think that we would still need Jesus because no matter how many good things we do for people around us, we are still selfish, and we still sin. You said majority of our tie...so there is still a minority that we would use for ourselves. We can feed the homeless one day, and then the next, we could say something uncalled for and hurt someone...so we would still need Jesus to save us from ourselves and what we do
umm event though it says rick its actually bekka :D
Because we need to have a relationship with Him, and when we do good things to try to get to heaven, we think we are in charge when really were not. I liked what Liana said at youth group:When we do good things w/o Christ, we are doing them for selfish reasons ( I want to get into heaven). But when we have a relationship with Jesus Its just him working through us. His live pouring out of us. Were not doing good things anymore, were obeying Him.
LYUDA
Good thinking, Bekka! I think you are right, we need the complete forgiveness of our sins, the forgiveness that was bought with Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. This is certainly one of the key reasons why we need Jesus.
I think your answer, Lyuda, provides another key element to why we need Jesus. So often the focus in the Church is on Christ's sacrifice for our sins. Now, of course the focus should be solely on Christ and his sacrifice, but often this gets reduced to some sort of legal transaction where God is the judge and we are the condemned defendant. Then Jesus comes in and bails us out, he pays our fine and we are free from the judge's sentence. The only thing wrong with this analogy of Jesus' sacrifice is that it has nothing to do with relationship. When we portray God the Father as a judge we can't see that he has any interest in our lives or love and concern for us. We only see him as someone completely consumed by his quest for justice. Likewise Jesus, when he is portrayed as someone who simply pays the fine for us, has no real personal interest in us either and really doesn't risk very much on us except a few dollars. Now of course we are initially grateful to Jesus for paying our fine, but how long can you continue to drum up these emotions of thankfulness for something that really costs God next to nothing? Do we sing about Jesus' sacrifice and do we have a strong emotional reaction to this? Sure, but it's because Jesus' sacrifice did much more than simply wipe the slate clean. The slate was wiped clean so that we could be fully reconciled to God and others, that is, our relationship was restored and is now free to grow and flourish. So it really is all about relationship and I think this is what people want and need to hear. I'll leave the rest of the answer for someone else to spell out in another comment.
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