Why do Christians think God is going to let them into heaven because they were better than everybody else?

Christians have often acted as if they were better, and that is a real failure rather than a misunderstanding. But the belief itself says the opposite, and it is worth checking what the sources actually claim.

1. Salvation is by grace, not merit. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). If Christians thought they had earned heaven, they would be contradicting the sentence that defines their faith.

2. Boasting is explicitly excluded. Paul asks, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded” (Romans 3:27). The whole argument of Romans 1–5 is designed to shut the door on exactly the posture the objection describes. A Christian who feels superior has not understood the letter he claims to believe.

3. The starting point is universal guilt. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and “none is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). On this account the believer is a rescued rebel, not a decorated athlete. There is no ladder, because everyone is at the bottom of it.

4. Jesus aimed at the self-righteous. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is introduced as being for “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (Luke 18:9). The man who went home justified prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). The person with a resume is the one who leaves condemned.

5. The dying thief had no merit at all. A criminal being executed alongside Jesus asked to be remembered, and heard “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). He had no time, no record, and no opportunity to be better than anyone. If heaven were a prize for the impressive, that story could not exist.

6. Works are fruit, not the price. Believers are “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10), which means the works come after and because of salvation, not before it as payment. James says the same thing from another angle: faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Fruit proves life; it does not purchase it.

7. The objection would exclude everyone anyway. If entry depended on being better than others, the standard would still be perfection, and “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10). A merit system does not reward the best person in the room; it condemns everyone in it. The Christian claim is that this is precisely why mercy is necessary.

8. Paul called himself the worst of sinners. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15) is a strange boast for a man claiming moral superiority. It is the natural speaking style of someone who thinks he was shown more mercy than he deserved, not less.

9. Comparison is what Jesus forbids. “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3–5). The posture the objection describes is one the New Testament condemns in the strongest terms. Where Christians have worn it, they have been disobedient, not consistent.

The Christian claim is not “I am better than you” but “I was worse off than I thought, and I was shown mercy anyway.” Where believers have communicated anything else, the objection is right and the gospel is on the objection's side.

Sources: Frank Turek; C.S. Lewis; Mere Christianity.

Related challenges:
• What does it mean to be a Christian? There are over 30,000 different groups, all of which answer this question differently. If agreement cannot be found on THIS issue, can the claims of Christians themselves be taken with any degree of seriousness?
• ALL sins are forgiven if you ‘accept Jesus as your savior’, right? What about the non-forgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit? We have a little CONTRADICTION problem here?!
• Why do arrogant Christians think they’re right about everything?