Most people think Christianity is a morality project. It's all about the rules. The rules are what help us live righteously and avoid sin. Don't drink, cuss or chew, or run with girls who do!
But strangely, Jesus looked at the priests of Israel, the most moral people on the face of the earth, and said, "The prostitutes enter the kingdom of God before you" (Mt 21:31).
Wait. What??
How can prostitutes enter God's kingdom before priests? Jesus explains in the next verse:
"For John came to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him" (Mt 21:32).
Prostitutes and thieves were entering the kingdom of God before priests because they believed John's message and the priests did not.
OK, so what was John's message?
John summarizes it like this. He points to Jesus and says to the crowds, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29).
According to John, the way of righteousness, the way out of sin and the way into God's kingdom, is not through a code of ethics, but through a Person.
Christianity says that all of us, priests and prostitutes, have a morality problem –– a sin problem (Rm 3:10-12). Since the moment the doctor slapped our rear ends we have all rebelled against our God (Ps 51:5), desiring to be our own gods, to call our own shots. In Romans 3, the Apostle Paul is clear: No one is good. No one is moral. No one earns righteousness. No one gets to God through good behavior.
So, how does God respond to our sin? In the most mind-boggling way. Since we can't get to God, two thousand years ago in a cattle shed in Bethlehem, God came to us. Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, came not to judge our sins or even to help us with our sins, but to bear our sins.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross" (1 Pet 2:24).
Though we are all sinful and rightly deserve punishment, Jesus bore our sins and our punishment for us, in our place, on the cross. Now there just is no punishment left for us.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!
Jesus not only takes away our unrighteousness, He freely gives us His perfect righteousness!
"For our sake God made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).
Forgiveness and righteousness come to every person, preacher or prostitute, in the same way: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Eph 2:8-9). God's response to our rule-breaking is not judgment, it's grace! No strings attached. You can't do any good deeds to earn it or bad deeds to lose it. Forgiveness and freedom are yours forever in Christ.
Literally anyone can get in on this.
If you're a prostitute, a thief, a drug addict, a murderer, a liar, a whatever, you can enter God's kingdom before many preachers and priests. How? Not by your good works, but by trusting in Jesus and His good works on your behalf (Jn 3:16-17).
This is the gospel. This is Christianity. God's primary goal is not to make you moral, it's to make you His. And He does this, not through a set of rules, but through the death and resurrection of His Son. Christianity isn't a morality project, it's a relax-and-enjoy-Jesus-forever project (Mt 11:28-30).
This is Jesus' message. Do you believe it?