Sermon Video: The Messiah Needed - Ecclesiastes 7:20

Are good people in heaven?  The problem with this question is that it assumes a definition of the term "good" that is not connected to the holiness and righteousness of God.  If we ask the question according to that standard of purity and perfection, the answer would be "yes", but with the important caveat that there are no such people.  A theme in the Bible, expressed here by Solomon in Ecclesiastes, is that humanity is fallen, in open rebellion against God, and without hope on our own of rectifying the situation.  It is not enough to claim to do 99 morally upright deeds for every 1 immoral act, nor even 999 to 1, for even such lofty aspirations fall short of the standard of righteousness that God set forth for the Messiah: sinless perfection.  Thus our need for a savior, a Messiah, comes into focus, if God had not come to save us, humanity would have remained in hopelessness.

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When warnings go unheeded

“No marvel that hardened sinners are not frightened from sin and to repentance by the threatening of misery in another world, which is future and out of sight, when the certain prospect of misery in this world, the sinking of their estates and the ruin of their healths, will not restrain them from vicious courses.”  This is from Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary, the passage he’s commenting upon is 2 Chronicles 21 where King Jehoram is confronted by a letter from the prophet Elijah predicting woe to him personally and to his kingdom because of his exceedingly great wickedness (he murdered his six brothers).  Henry is correct to note that the consequences of sin are not wholly relegated to judgment after death, we see what choosing to embrace evil does to humanity day after day.  The truth that virtue is its own reward, and your sin fill find you, out is clear for anyone willing to look at it, but ignored by those whose hearts are unwilling to admit their error and seek God’s forgiveness.  This is clearly a flaw in our fallen human nature, something that we will always have to strive against, and the reason why Plato’s simply solution of educating everyone on right and wrong is insufficient to create a better world.  In Plato’s mind, “to know the good is to do the good”.  Sadly, as Henry correctly points out, there have always been people willing to ignore what they can plainly see.  As it always does, grace rescues humanity from itself when God intervenes, first through sending Christ to make the way possible, and now each time when he calls through the Spirit to break through our resistance and blindness.  The warning of future judgment is still necessary, and the pointing out of present consequences still appropriate, but we also need to remember that such things will not always be sufficient to turn the sinner from his/her self-destructive path; there but for the grace of God go I.