Is there a ‘Heaven exam’? If so, why isn’t 70% a passing grade? 70% lets you move on in an algebra or philosophy class. But God expects us to get an A+. Why an A+? Why not a C-?
I’ve come to realize that the question of why we must have perfection to be with God is only confusing to imperfect people (like me).
Even if I take educational grading standards as ‘the way to determine qualification into Heaven’, the question becomes, whose educational standards standards? Standards vary widely and are even subject to change. For example, in some educational settings, you can be promoted with a 60%. In some education fields, you can’t stay in the program unless you make at least an 80%. For still other programs, you can’t even apply or be considered if you make less than a 90% or even a 95%.
Sometimes the acceptable percentage depends on other classmates. For example, in one class, the highest grade may be an 80%, so an 80% becomes a 100% and a 60% becomes an 80%. Or, in a competitive program, a 97% might knock you out of qualifying because someone else got a 99%. On a spelling bee, you can miss words so long as all the contestants miss their words, too.
But is this about a standard of perfection or a ranking system?
In our culture we see shades, degrees, and combinations of right and wrong, rather than what is really there:
right
and
wrong.
There’s no surprise, then, that our culture (myself included before God opened my eyes) has difficulty understanding the chasm between right and wrong, Heaven and Hell.
We have difficulty distinguishing right and wrong in ‘circumstantial’ and ‘ambiguous’ (and especially hypothetical) situations. Philosophy works hard to create extremely complex and convoluted scenarios in which right and wrong are not easily seen, when, truly, if you lived out those scenarios and you were perfect, you would know exactly what to do. It is the very reason that we are not perfect that we have so much trouble sometimes telling right from wrong!
It’s easier in real-life examples to tell right from wrong, but easier doesn’t mean easy. Still, even with all our confusion and mess, we still at least sometimes exalt people who give their lives to helping the poor, protecting the weak, and caring for the sick and we still at least sometimes condemn people who murder, abuse power, and mistreat the defenseless.
The more extreme the example, the more we tend to agree on right and wrong. For example, while not everyone might agree that downloading music illegally is wrong, almost everyone would agree that killing a ten-year-old child is wrong[1].
While we may leave some or even most things to wallow in ‘moral ambiguity’, we don’t leave the things that really matter to us to such ‘interpretive’ paths. When something matters to me personally, I seem to suddenly know just exactly what is right and wrong!
When we sin, we create a debt that is incurable unless cured by perfection, our original state as created beings.
The book of Romans warns us that we cannot get 100% on our own. It also gives us promise that Christ has come and has fulfilled the Law for those who believe in Him.
There is no such thing as 40% perfect and you are 65% perfect. There is either perfect or not perfect: 100% or 0%.
But why do we often accept less than 100%? The reason why less than 100% is acceptable in programs is 1) we are imperfect and we know it and 2) the information is hopefully not life-or-death.
If I get a 70% on a philosophy test, the school counselor probably isn’t going to tell me I’m doomed to spend the rest of my life in failure.
But what if I’m studying to be a doctor and I have a test on only essential questions that I must know to perform a surgery correctly? Would the people I’m going to one day practice on be all right if I got 91%? Or even 99%?
There’s going to be no attitude of, “Try, try again.”
My sin drops me from 100% to 0%, on my ‘life exam’, because it destroys my relationship with God and makes it impossible for me to do good, something like if I cut off my arms and then tried to wiggle my fingers.
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from that curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:10-14, NIV)
Jesus Christ becomes our 100% when we trust Him.
So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty. (Romans 8:1, NCV)
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[1] I put an age on the child in this example because not everyone agrees that it is wrong if it was a ten-week-old child developing inside the womb.
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