Can A Few Good Men Save Us?

When we are in trouble, when we need help, when we want to be saved from something, we generally turn to good men/ women; don’t we? It is natural for us to take the help of Good Men (I will use the masculine term from here, but it includes Women too). We trust them, we believe they have good intentions and hence they won’t let us down, they won’t cheat us etc. Have you seen the superhero movies like Avengers. A few Good men and women with some super powers get together to save the world. We have the Indian counterparts of Krish and Chotta Bheem. Children especially love Chotta Bheem. Don’t they? We love such stories don’t we? We love such stories because they are about good men and women who make sacrifices to save the world. We wish that such good men and women will be able to solve the problems of the world, problems like Wars, Diseases, Criminals and rapists, Famine etc.

At the spiritual realm, there is a trend to reduce the whole aspect of faith to the battle between the good and the bad and the good ultimately prevailing. There are many world religions that ultimately propound this theory of exalting the Good. The whole world accepts Jesus Christ as a “Good Man”. Actually as long as we put Jesus in the list of Good Men, there is no problem. No one will persecute you. No one will put you in jail, no one will oppose you if you just way that Jesus was a Good man. Is there anything wrong in it? It is a natural question for us to ask. The question that I would like us to ask is not whether being good is a problem. The question that I would like us to ask ourselves this morning is can a few good men save the world? Save us? I would like us to refer to my last sermon here, where we established that we are by ourselves sinners and by ourselves, we cannot escape the wrath of God. We by ourselves cannot escape the sin that is ingrained in us. So can a few good men/ women save us from this certainty of eternal punishment?

Let us look at a few good men from the Bible. Let us look at the Old Testament. The names that will jump at us are that of Moses, Samuel, Noah, Job and Daniel. I am not saying they we “perfect men”. For example Moses killed someone. Samuel also has killed people. But then they killed bad people didn’t they? The superheroes that we spoke about at the beginning of this message also has killed many bad people. So our heroes from the bible were not perfect, but we can still put them in the category of “Good people”. These were righteous men. They did not sin. They did what is right in the eyes of the Lord. They served Him. They were willing to sacrifice everything to obey God. Noah lived in a time when the land was full of sin, but he stood out. He was different. He was righteous and God chose him to give continuity to human race. Moses had his skirmishes with God, but those were all for interceding for others. He was a righteous man. God chose him to bring the nation of Israel together to their homeland and to record the laws for their living. Samuel was faultless, and obeyed the Lord always. God used him to identify and anoint the best King the world has ever seen, in David. Job of course was absolutely faultless to the extent that God was willing to take on a challenge with Satan to make him do something bad. God used him to teach others that God is sovereign and ultimately we are dependent on Him and Him alone. Daniel was true to his faith and stayed true to the faith even in a hostile land under persecution and threat to his own life. God used him to prophesy about the nature of things to come.

These were good men. And so, it is not a bad thing if we trust in them and say that these good men could possibly save me from God’s wrath when I do something wrong. After all, we have read stories of Moses interceding on behalf of the stubborn Israelites many times, and God relenting to his intercession. We have seen Samuel interceding on behalf of the Israelites after they demanded a King over them. We have seen Job interceding for his friends who blasphemed God’s name and nature, and they were spared. So it is OK if I put my hope in these good men to save me from God’s wrath.

Unfortunately for you and me, the message this morning is different.