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What happens when you are sharing the gospel with someone who asks, “Won’t a good moral life get me to heaven?” How do you respond?

Most evangelicals would immediately say “no.” But I disagree.

My first response is to say, “Yes, a good moral life will get you to heaven.” But then I ask the person to define “good.” Most of the time, people will respond by pointing to good deeds on behalf of others or their sincerity of heart. That is when we need to explain God’s definition of “goodness” and “morality.”

When Jesus asked the rich young ruler what he thought about the standard of God’s righteousness, the ruler responded by listing off several commandments. Then, Jesus pointed out the flaw in his goodness. He exposed the sin that was hiding behind a mask of self-righteousness.

In the same way, we must turn our attention to God’s definition of goodness. We can do this in a number of ways. Perhaps the best way is by going to the Ten Commandments. As we enumerate the Ten Commandments, the Law should begin to shine light on the holiness of God and on the sinfulness of our condition.

We can back up our presentation of the Law by speaking of the Apostle Paul’s diagnosis of human fallenness. There is none good, no not one. There are none who seek God.

At this point, the goal is to help the lost person see that he/she is not leading a “good moral life” according to God’s definition of good. Once we see that all of us have fallen short of God’s standard of good, we arrive at the law-court scene, where God the just judge must pass sentence on sinful humanity, as part of his overarching purpose to restore his broken world.

Now, the good news of the gospel can be declared. We explain how Jesus Christ offered up his life in order to pay the price for our sinfulness, and how to receive his righteous and good standing before God as our very own.

The reason why it might be helpful to answer “yes” to the initial question about a good moral life is so you can prepare the way for the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to be part of the solution.

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