Hey Drew,

You made me think. I thought about who I am and what I do. To my shame I couldn’t think of anything about me that isn’t selfish. Even the good things I do I’m thinking “aren’t I good?” or “people are going to like me for that”. I read the word “altruism” the other day and looked it up in the dictionary. Drew, I have to confess that nothing I do is altruistic. It is all centred around me. I automatically think “what’s in it for me?” whenever I do the slightest thing. You’re telling me it’s bad ie. God doesn’t like it. But Drew, I don’t think I’m a “bad” person. I’m not a serial killer. My name isn’t Adolf Hitler. I once didn’t tell the checkout girl when she gave me too much change. But that doesn’t make me a bad person, does it? I won’t be going to hell because of it, will I? What if I did a lot of good things to make up? Can’t I be saved if I did lots of good things even if I don’t really believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

By the way, I’m right with you on the “gay” word. I haven’t liked to say anything in case anyone thought I was gay. I assume you’re not because you mentioned your wife in an earlier letter. If I were gay, and I’m not saying I am, would that preclude me from being saved? I ask just out of curiosity. I drink beer and watch the football on the television so I can’t be gay, can I?

Your (platonic) friend,
Jack

Jackopolis,

You make me think, too, Jack. In fact, I was getting my think on big time the other night and I think I might have pulled my medulla oblongata. I hope I won’t have to get it amputated.

“If you wanna play the game, you have to play by the rules.” Ever heard a saying like this? Yeh, me neither. I might have just made it up, but here’s what I mean to introduce to the conversation by it: good things that we do aren’t the standard by which we’ll be judged. We’ll all be judged one day. And since this world isn’t ours, but God’s, we have to play by his rules. He has given Jesus so that we might be saved through him. Jesus is the means through which God has set up that we be saved, not good things. Without repenting of sin and following Jesus, good things don’t really count as good. That which is done to the glory of God is good and anything that we do for selfish ambition is not essentially and ultimately good. Why? Because we are God’s creatures and created for him. But to say this shouldn’t make you think our happiness and God’s glory are at odds, but that our happiness is actualized (fully reached) in pursuing God.

Furthermore, when would we know if we had done enough in order to merit heaven? How many good things would we have to do in order to be sure that heaven was ours? Salvation is God’s gift and that gift comes with much cost to God but freely to us. Would that we would be God’s and stop striving on our own, especially when our own strivings aren’t the standard by which we’ll be gaged. We’ll be gaged on whether we belong to Jesus or not. We try to make salvation harder than it really is. We want to try to forge our own paths and do, do, do when the truth is all that matters is what is done, namely that Jesus died to make the offer of salvation to everyone if they will repent.

Being gay won’t keep you from being saved, but treasuring the sin of homosexuality will. Somethings about everyone have to change when they being following Christ because our sinful life-styles before Christ are contrary to the way God calls us to live. The Apostle Pauls hints at this in his letter to the Christians in the town of Corinth when he says…”such were some of you. But you were washed…” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Regardless of your sin prior to your life with Jesus, what solely matters is, Are you washed? Because “such” were we. We were contrary to the way in which God created to live and move and have our being. Here’s the context (1 Corinthians 6:9-11):

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We can conclude from this that the homosexual lifestyle–along with the long list of other sins–are incompatible with following Christ and how we were created to live.

This reply was kind of pieced together over several days, so I do accept any rockiness in the argument and development of this, but I hope that you can see past what’s lacking.

One last point concerning doing things to earn salvation: while good things do not gain salvation for anyone, they do evince the change that has taken place in the heart of someone that’s been born-again, from above. The book of James is replete with this.

Enjoying,
drew