On passing grades

Salvation is much less complicated than people imagine. On Judgment Day, everyone will be graded by God. What makes it confusing is people have experienced so many other judgments in their lives that they think they know what it will mean to be judged by God.

For instance, in school, some teachers give us grades based on objective standards, whereas others assign grades based on a bell curve distribution. But either way, the scale is structured so that the vast majority of students pass. And now, 40 years after Vietnam caused grade inflation to protect mediocre students from the draft, almost everyone feels entitled to Bs and As, as if even average is now above average.

Similarly, on the job, most people do well on evaluations because the scale is crafted to realistically the labor pool’s potential. And you usually get to stay employed unless you make some colossal mistake. Even in sport, where of course some win and others lose, all you have to do to win is be a little better than the other guy.

With God, it just isn’t like this at all. God’s judgment is a pass/fail system based on a single final exam with only one question: “Do you deserve to pass?” Everyone who thinks he deserves to pass fails, and everyone who knows he deserves to fail passes, and this for a simple reason. The man who knows he deserves to fail begs for mercy, a gift God so eagerly wants to grant that He sacrificed His only Son to make it possible.