One recent afternoon, I was conversing with a close friend of mine who is not a follower of Christ. I would peg him as agnostic, but he is a thoughtful and intelligent man, so while he disagrees with my faith, we can have civil and rational discussions about it. In the conversation, he surprised me with a comment that was both blunt and telling. He said his problem with Christianity was the forgiveness issue.
He said he could never sacrifice his own son, and his feeling is that instead of forgiving mankind, God should raise the bar and demand more from us. I thought he was going to say he struggled with forgiveness so couldn’t conceive of God forgiving us, but he went another direction. He considers a high bar a better solution than a merciful gift.
The interesting thing is he hit at the heart of Christianity. God has set the bar and it couldn’t be any higher. He demands we be perfect, just as He is (Matthew 5:48). That’s a high bar indeed. When was the last time you got through an entire week without sinning? For most of us, it would be quite the accomplishment to get through an entire day. Left to our own devices, we could never reach that bar (Romans 3:23). It’s because the bar is so high that God had to send His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
As descendants of Adam, we are all born in sin (Psalm 51:5). None of us comes into this world holy (Romans 5:12), and the only way we leave holy is by accepting the gift of salvation provided by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Being unable to reach the standard God sets by His holiness reveals how helpless we are. While helpless, we are not hopeless (2 Corinthians 1:9–10). Jesus is our hope and is the only way to survive the precarious predicament in which we find ourselves (John 14:6).
God doesn’t need to set the bar higher because it is already out of reach. The argument collapses on itself because it sees the solution as men earning their way into Heaven. God’s Word is clear that isn’t a possibility (Ephesians 2:8–9). Nothing we do will make us right before God (Titus 3:5). We are sinful, dirty, and unable to stand in God’s presence (Isaiah 64:6). Thus, we need a better solution than “try harder.”
I am thankful that God doesn’t demand more from us because we’ve already proven we can’t even handle the minimal demands He does place on us. What are those demands? Love Him more than anyone or anything else (Matthew 22:37–38). Worship nothing and no one but Him (Exodus 20:3–4). Do what He commands us to do in His Word (John 14:15). That’s not a high bar and still we fall short almost every day. Praise God He provides a way out of our mess. Praise God He sent His Son to die on our behalf (Romans 5:8).
Without Jesus, we are all damned to Hell (John 3:18). But for those who receive His offer of salvation and proclaim Him as Lord, we have eternity to bask in His love, glory, and rest (Romans 10:9–10). I’m glad it’s not up to us, because if it were, we’d all spend eternity in Hell (Romans 6:23). We don’t need a higher bar. We just need Jesus.