A retired couple moved into the other half of a duplex that we now co-owned. She, apparently, was a church-goer, He wasn’t.  She had dropped into our introductory conversation that she was a Presbyterian.  I told her that she was blessed - there was a Presbyterian Church just around the corner.  Some months later I happened to speak to her again but our conversation didn’t go well.  She told me that she was never going back to that Presbyterian Church again.  Of course she justified the reason for her ban on the Presbyterians.  She complained that the preacher had had the audacity to tell her from the pulpit that she was a sinner.  She was highly indignant that she had been lumped in with tax-collectors, harlots and and other socially questionable people.

The Presbyterian preacher in question was a good and respected friend.  I couldn’t imagine that he would have singled her out so I assumed he had dome what I too have often done from the pulpit - to say with the Apostle Paul in Romans 3: “There is no one who is righteous, no, not one!  All have turned aside...!”  And that wasn’t just Paul’s thinking either.  He simply quoted the Old Testament Psalms.

The problem is that this sort of talk doesn’t cut it with some people.  I think of the workmate who objected that he needed Jesus to save him.  He was a good bloke.  Well, okay, he readily admitted to not being perfect... but doesn’t that apply to everyone?  When I challenged him about specific failures the worst thing he could think of was that he had once shot a kookaburra that had tried to raid his hen house.  He was horrified that I actually thought that without Jesus he would miss out on eternal bliss - wherever that might be.

Both these incidents face us with the human default position that is ever so common.  Human beings are basically good.  That’s the thinking of the average Aussie.  We can make it on our own with the Almighty (if He exists) by simply being sincere and by making sure our good deeds outweigh our faults and failures.  And that’s the big dilemma.  If you don’t see your problem then you don’t look for a solution.  If it’s true that we human beings are basically good - then why, in heaven’s name, did Jesus have to suffer the cruel torture and hellish agony of the cross?

The heart of the issue when - it comes to our human default position, that we’re basically good - is that God doesn’t do good... God only does perfect.

I’ve often tried to convey the enormous difference between being good and being perfect with a simple little story.  You front up to the pearly gates when you die and ask what’s needed to be admitted.  The admitting angel tells you that you need one million points to make it through those pearly gates.  You ask the angel how you get points and he tells you to start listing some good things you did in your life.  You tell him that in the last few years you’ve been helping with Meals on Wheels - and the angel replies, “Well, that’s worth one point!” In shock you realise you’ve still got 999,999 to go.  You tell him you were a faithful husband who never cheated on his wife - and you find you now have two points.  Telling him that you were always a good father to your children gets you another point so that now you only have 999,997 to go.  Do you see what I’m driving at?  Nobody... nobody at all is good enough for God because God doesn’t do good - He only does perfect.

It’s because of this that my Presbyterian minister friend told his congregation they were sinners in need of Jesus.  And that’s why I told my kookaburra shooter why he needed Jesus.  Jesus didn’t only come for tax-collectors and harlots... He came for all of us who are less than perfect.

Let’s return to my scenario at the pearly gates.  In desperation I suddenly realise that getting a point here and there is not going to get me to the one million mark.  So I blurt out to the angel that there is one other thing I can think of: I did put my faith and trust in Jesus.  At that the angel replies: Well, Jesus earned your million points for you,  In you go!”

John Westendorp