Am I a Good Person?

There are a few hypotheticals I like to give to people to gain a better understanding of their faith.  One of them is as follows:

Let’s begin by assuming that you’re in a room, a small rectangular room with two very long walls and two short walls, one of which is green and the other is blue, with 99 other people who claim faith in Christ.  You’ve never met them, they are to you complete strangers other than your familiarity with their confession of faith.  They range in age from just a child to the very elderly.  They each speak different languages, in fact not one speaks your language or another’s language.  The style of clothes is varied from rags to the most expensive of designer fashion.

Into this room walks another person who explains what needs to happen by handing out pamphlets, each in their own language, to each person.  The pamphlet simply requests the following:

“Order yourselves from least to greatest in terms of sinfulness, the most decrepit sinner in most need of Grace should be nearest the blue wall, the least sinful sinner needing the least amount of Grace, should be nearest the green wall.  Among your midst are those who have committed murder, rape, theft, adultery, and lies.  There are also those among you who have ministered to the poor, fed the hungry, visited those in prison, led others to Christ, and counted their lives forfeit for another.  The order is important because Christ is in the next room and will know if you get it right or not.  You have 5 minutes to get in line before Christ enters.”

You look up and people are beginning to take their place.  Where do you go stand?

I’m interested in their responses.  Everyone has a sense of his or her own sinfulness.  Some of us are great sinners.  Some of us have lived pretty good lives.  There’s little question that we all need God’s grace.  The question is how much grace we need.

So, how much grace do you need?

What God Requires of You by John Hendryx 06/16/03