When talking to my dear non-christian friends and family about Christianity I've always come across an obstacle which I haven't been able to answer. Most of the people we know aren't going to be extreme psychopath murderers. (No offense to people who do know... you know.) But most of the people we know are "average" good citizens. Sure make fun of the annoyingly strict teacher, throw a swear word every now and then, God won't strike you down for lying to your Mother that you've eaten lunch right? And booking only one strictly four-person room at a hotel when you have five in your family, no big. So why do these people who don't lie, cheat, murder, steal, need a saviour? They're good, decent, nice.
So when they hear the salvation story, which tbh they've heard over and over and over, they get the impression that they don't need Jesus. Only bad people need Jesus to forgive them. They're sinners and have committed all those terrible crimes. Its a wonderful thing: karma.
But that's not how the world works.
Take a pregnant teenage mother for purposes of illustrating a point. Yes, she slept around and got pregnant, got an STD, say AIDS, and so she's destined to die. There you go, karma for her. She was a 'slut' so she's getting what she deserved. She's your "standard sinner"? No she isn't.
The "standard sinner", would actually be her baby. The baby born from a scandal. The baby born with AIDS. Its not the baby's fault that its born with AIDS, but its still a baby with AIDS. It still can't be healed. Its still destined to die. There's no one (other than the mother technically) to blame for this baby's fate, and there's nothing that can be done about the fact that the baby will die...
...Unless you believe in grace. And miracles. That the baby would be miraculously healed of this disease for which there's no discoverable cure so far by the hand of man.
This is an illustration of course. (You should know by now I love them. ;) )
But my point is,
We're all born with Sin. We might do good things in our life, or try our best to be the outstanding citizen. You might be the nicest chap around. You might be the straight A student who doesn't drink or do drugs, or smoke or party. But its hard to accept this fact: you're still born with sin. You're the baby born with AIDS. You didn't cause this occurrence (technically Eve Adam did). But you're born with a corrupt nature (the "AIDS"). And because of this, to gain eternal life (vs eternal death), you need a miracle.
And that's where we come to the salvation story. That miracle is Jesus Christ.
