Real Conversations: Am I really bad enough to deserve hell?
Don Barkley -
“Don, am I really bad enough to deserve hell?”
“It’s not just you. It’s everyone. To ask if I am bad enough to deserve hell is like asking if I am not strong enough to jump the Grand Canyon.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Okay. I know I don’t measure up to my own standard of right and wrong. I’ve sinned more than some and less than others. But it doesn’t matter how I measure up to others or even to my own standard. What matters is how I measure up against God’s standard. His standard is moral perfection, in not only deeds, but in thoughts, and words as well. Given that standard, I am as likely to make it to heaven as I am to jump across the Grand Canyon.”
“He expects perfection? That seems unreasonable.”
“Perfection is a high standard. But God is perfect and can’t be less than perfect—perfectly loving, perfectly good, and perfectly just. To accept injustice of any kind would make Him unjust. And I think we want God to be just, at least in the grand scheme. Would we want a universe where the God over it all was unjust?”
“Then everybody deserves hell?”
“Yes.”
“That’s depressing, Don.”
“It would be, except that the only perfect person, Jesus Christ, willingly died for us. As the Son of God, He could pay the infinite penalty justly due us because of our offense against the Infinite God. The Bible says He took on our sin, so we don’t have to experience the hell we deserve. Now, that’s what I call love. Without Jesus, we’d all be in a bad place, but with Jesus we can be forgiven.”
“This is something I’ve never understood before. This is really amazing. So, am I saved because of Jesus?”
“Not automatically. God doesn’t force people into an eternal love relationship with Him. You must accept the gift. You must place your trust in what Jesus has done for you.”
“I will think about this.”
Don Barkley is Emeritus Director of Staff Training at Search and over the last 40 years has led hundreds of discussions about God and life in homes, businesses, country clubs and colleges. With his wife Ann, Don enjoys visiting their kids and grandkids in all four time zones.
