I Don’t Need Jesus and Neither Do You

An entry in the online forum “LunaticOutpost.com”:

“From what I understand from Christians, I am “born in sin.” And then, every little thing that I have ever done wrong is added up and, no matter what kind of good I do in this life, this will add up to me being so irredeemably bad that I will have to burn in eternal torment forever.

And there is nothing I can do to make it okay with God. Except this one thing. Which is to have Jesus save me.

But the thing is this: Either their God is a very, very, very unloving, unkind person, or else this is [he uses a stronger word than “baloney”].

There is nothing I have ever done that a reasonable person would not, if I asked, forgive me for, and I can prove it.

I have forgiven EVERYONE. A bit more than a year ago … I made the choice to consciously and [literally] forgive every single person that has ever directly or indirectly, consciously or unintentionally caused me any hardship or pain. It wasn’t always easy to do, but I eventually did it.

Doing this has changed my life in some amazing ways. I feel profoundly liberated. I am without the anger and hatred that used to plague me. So that was cool.

But it makes me think: I cannot be “bigger” than God. Surely! I would not send a single soul to hell, if it were up to me. I would try to show them why they should transform. Why they should learn compassion.

I would do all that and I am just a normal guy on planet earth who has had a few decades to work things out as best he can. I am not the eternal all-knowing creator of all things. Who, I would think, would be a bit more wise and loving than me.

So the bottom line is this: God is more than me. More love, more compassion, more wisdom, more understanding, more everything. If God cannot forgive more than I can, then that is not God we are talking about. So God can forgive me and I don’t need to have someone die for my sins.”

The person had given their essay this title: “I don’t need Jesus and neither do you. REALLY.”

It is an interesting argument, but does it hold up? Is my forgiving someone the same as what God does? As a mere man, can I forgive Hitler for the millions of murders he committed? Certainly I could forgive him for what he had done to me personally, but what would I be doing in that case? When I forgive, I am letting someone off the hook, but I am not really dealing with the underlying offense.

God has to do this, because he is holy. And his holiness is what human can’t really grasp. This is why we still need a savior. We need Jesus. REALLY.