"Bad people"

Getting deja-vu while reading this post? You may have read my April 2009 post "The Right Mindset." If you haven't, go and read it, then come back. :)

Have you ever looked at someone and thought to yourself, "That is a bad person"?

Maybe it was because of what the person was wearing. Maybe it was because the person bragged about the immoral things they were doing. Maybe it was because they just did bad things, bragging or no bragging.

So, if they're a bad person, does that make you a good person?

"Well," you say, "I'm not a good person. Everyone sins. But I'm a better person."
Or maybe you said "Well, yes, I'd say I'm a pretty good person. I'm not perfect, but at least I try."

First of all, it's not our place to judge (James 4 - but that deserves its own blog post, so I won't say anymore on that subject).

Second, you were bad enough to need a Savior. Soak that in for a minute. Jesus died the same death for you as He did for the "bad" person. He didn't die a shorter or easier death for you.

That's because it only takes one sin to make us "bad." Saying that we're "better" than someone else is like imagining God is a videogame or a scorekeeper or handing out brownie points. It's like saying you can earn favor with God...maybe you can't earn your way to heaven, but God certainly likes you a lot better than that other person because of all the good things you're doing for Him.

Don't get me wrong. God does love all the good things we do for Him. He wants us to do our best to follow Him. But we all sin. We all put Jesus on the cross. We all need forgiveness. In fact, every good deed we do is only on Jesus' strength - we can't get credit for it, because it is God who enables us to choose to do right (James 1).

For further reading: the books of the prophets (all of the books between Isaiah and Malachi including Isaiah and Malachi), 35 reasons not to sin.