Section 40 — The Person Who Says "I'm Basically a Good Person"

The Christian Statement

"I'm basically a good person" is perhaps the most common reason secular people give for not needing Christianity. It deserves a careful and non-condescending response, because the person saying it is usually sincere and often genuinely morally serious.

The response has two parts. First: agree. Most people who say this are right about the comparison they are making. They are better than Hitler. Better than the person who abused them. Better than the celebrity whose moral failures are in the headlines. "Basically good" by the standards of human comparison is often accurate.

Second: introduce the relevant standard. The question is not whether you are good compared to other people. The question is whether you are good compared to the standard that would qualify you to stand before a holy God. The standard is not "better than average." The standard is "perfect." And the only human being who has ever met that standard is the one offering to credit you with His record.

This is not to shame the person. It is to help them see that the Christian offer is not addressed to people who are bad enough to need saving. It is addressed to everyone — because everyone, however good by human standards, owes a debt they cannot pay to a God who is perfectly holy. The good news is not that God grades on a curve. The good news is that God paid the bill.

❖ Agnostic: I live by the Golden Rule. I'm kind to people. I don't need church to tell me how to behave.

✔ How to respond: I believe you. And I want to ask: does living by the Golden Rule produce in you all the time the person you want to be? When you're patient — is it consistent? When you forgive — is it complete? When you love — is it unconditional? Most people who are honest about their internal life know that the gap between who they want to be and who they actually are is real. Christianity is not addressed to people who are failing the Golden Rule. It is addressed to people who are trying their best and finding it isn't quite enough. Not to shame them but to offer them a different source for what they are trying to generate from their own resources.