But He Rarely Sins

Last night I had a conversation with a younger man and he is confused. I told him that the only way you can be saved is to accept Jesus Christ as savior, admit you’re a sinner, and ask for forgiveness.

Q. Last night I had a conversation with a younger man and he is confused. I told him that the only way you can be saved is to accept Jesus Christ as savior, admit you’re a sinner, and ask for forgiveness. His biggest hang up is his concern about good people who never accept Christ, people who rarely sin, always ready to help the needy and so on. I tried to explain they are lost without Jesus, but he can’t accept that. I don’t know where to begin to explain it to him. Can you help me?

A. Your friend is confused because he doesn’t understand that we’re saved by what we believe, not by how we behave (John 6:28-29). Good thing, too, because no human being in our fallen state can ever behave well enough to please God.(Romans 3:20) His standards are simply too high.

Unbelievers have a relative standard. They look at people and think that the best of us must be good. And compared to the others they are. But God’s standards are absolute. Rarely sinning is not good enough for Him. Only never sinning is acceptable. We can’t do that so Jesus took the penalty due us for our sins and God counted His death to our credit.(1 Peter 3:18)

If your friend will admit to committing even one sin, then he’s a sinner in need of a savior. (James 2:10) All of man’s good works count for nothing until he’s handled his sin problem.

Is your friend really willing to be lost along with the “good people who never accept Christ” because of his concern for them, or is that just the reason he gives for avoiding the issue?