Nice People Are Difficult to Save

Obviously God can save whomever He wants, but I have noticed in my own personal evangelism experience that those who think they’ve got it together are extremely difficult to reach.  It’s difficult for instance to share the Gospel with a churched unbeliever.  Jesus continually lamented the religious leaders self-righteousness as it kept them far from God.

Maybe this is why I like working with juvenile offenders so much.  I never have to convince them they are a sinner.  Now they may not agree with me that certain activity, such as premarital sex, is sinful, but they know they’ve messed up for the most part.  If they hadn’t they wouldn’t be locked up.

C.S. Lewis in Against the Night had a similar observation.  He said, “A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world – and might even be more difficult to save.”

Nice people need Jesus, but they just often don’t realize it.  Thank God the Holy Spirit is the evangelist and not me.