Two neighbors—two ideologies

Yesterday at a Christmas gathering I chatted with two neighbors who both claim to be Christians. One shared stories of the work she does in community projects and through her church. The other person is a new Christian who freely talked about the Lord’s leading in her life. Both of them belong to mainline denominations that have been around for centuries, but in many ways these churches seem to have slipped from their biblical roots.

As mostly a listener and observer, I soon became aware that one of them has a personal relationship with the Lord, while the other one seems to have no idea of what that means.

My first clue was the emphasis on good works. The believer did talk about things she was doing, but she easily gave credit to the Lord who was “leading” her or telling her what to do. However, this line of conversation annoyed the other one. She emphasized the goodness of her priest who told her what to do, and the goodness of people in general. At one point she said, “I’m amazed at how many genuinely good people are immigrating to this country.”

At the time, I didn’t hear the Holy Spirit telling me to challenge that statement, but later thought that if He had, my response might have been, “Oh, that is interesting; yet the Bible says there are not any good people.”

I’m remembering one point in Jesus’ ministry when a rich young man came to Him and called Him ‘good.’ Jesus responded with, “There is no one good but God.” He wasn’t denying His own deity, but challenging this person because it soon became obvious that he thought of himself as good, even to the point that he was doing all that God wanted and didn’t need a Savior.

The woman in my conversation didn’t say that about herself, but she did say it about others. She mentioned a large influx of people from a certain part of the world who do not worship God or know the Lord. The other woman said, “It’s great that they can come here. Who knows, maybe we can have an influence to convert them.”

The other woman said, “Oh, they are good people. They don’t need converting.”

Today I’m reading Romans 3, a sharp contradiction to this view that people are basically good. It is not a popular part of the Bible!

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

No one likes this verdict. I can apply it comfortably to the tyrants of this world, warmongers and killers and other obviously evil people, but God applies it to everyone, including the ‘good’ people I know. Even worse, this also applies to me.

Our problem is that God’s standards are impossibly high and the only solution seems to be that they must be lowered. Then we can call ourselves good and happily continue with life rather than let any annoying conviction of sin move us to despair.

The Bible indicates that in our hearts we know better. We know that we don’t measure up, and that plunks us squarely in front of two options. We can try to prove our own righteousness and earn His favor by keeping His law, or we can admit our need for forgiveness and mercy and ask Him to save us.

Romans 3 goes on, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

All who believe are sinners who fall short—the same as those who don’t believe—yet through faith God gives believers the righteousness of Christ. The Lawgiver on the throne becomes the Law-keeper in our hearts. Through Him, we can stand before God, our sins covered and our eternity secured.

One neighbor chose to humble herself before God and ask for His mercy. She spoke of His goodness to her. The other chose to prove she could please Him and spoke of her ‘do-good’ list, presumably offered to Him. Unfortunately, no matter how much good she does, she still falls short. It is not my judgment; the Bible clearly says so.

Yesterday I felt the temptation to get into a contest of who does the most and best good deeds. However, my Sunday morning class was about Christ’s temptations, so that one was easy to recognize and resist. The other believer didn’t fall into it either. We both listened and sadly noted the smugness, even the pompous superiority of the third woman, which included looks of disgust for the simplicity of our trust.

To an observer, we may have looked like churchgoers swapping stories. Had we got into a theological discussion about the way of salvation, we would have looked like ‘stupid Christians who can’t get along.’ For that situation and time, the first option, even though it isn’t exactly accurate, seemed better than pushing buttons.

I don’t know what God thought of our conversation, or if I could have made any difference yesterday, but I do know that He wants my prayers today for this one woman who does not know Him, and for the other who, because of His great mercy, enjoys just the opposite.