God "helps those who help themselves"?

The other day, I watched the first episode of the TV show “The Good Place” on Netflix.  The premise of the show is a woman is killed and she enters her after-life.  She goes to what is referred to as “The Good Place” (they try to dance around the idea that it is Heaven, but it is).  The tension revolves around the fact that it was only through a clerical error that this woman entered “The Good Place” to begin with.  She didn’t do any of the good things that the records had tallied for her; in fact, in her Earthly life, she was rude, selfish, and unpleasant.

There are a lot of reasons why I don’t like this episode or this TV show in general, but my biggest complaint is that the show asserts that everyone who enters “The Good Place” does so exclusively through the good works that they have done on Earth.  It is explained that anytime someone does something good, it is recorded, and if you reach a certain plateau of points, you are able to enter “The Good Place”.  By the way, yes, there is also a destination they call “The Bad Place” (the dialogue acknowledges that “The Bad Place” is a place of torment and agony; they don’t call it Hell, but I’d say that’s what it is).

I find the premise of this show troubling.  Why?  It’s best summed up by a statement given in the film “Catch Me if You Can”.  Frank Abagnale, a master of deception (played very well by Leonardo DiCaprio) put it this way: “Keep pushing the lie; keep pushing it, until it becomes true.”  You don’t go to Heaven by performing good works.  But the more that lie is presented the more readily it will be accepted as fact.

So many Bible verses teach that salvation isn’t because of good deeds.  I could quote Titus 3:5, Acts 13:39, Romans 3:28, it’s actually stated several times in Galatians 2:16 alone – repetition aids learning.  But check out this passage from Ephesians 2: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (verses 8-9; italics added for emphasis).  It is by grace, through faith, that a person can be assured of Heaven one day, not as a result of accruing enough points through good works.

 

You see, grace is God giving us something that we don’t deserve to get.  Grace is God saying, “I have a free gift for you.”  Grace is unmerited favor.  Bill Oudemolen once put it this way in a sermon: “I believe Satan’s greatest lie about God is God delights in rewarding human effort.  ‘God helps those who help themselves.’  Which, by the way, is not in the Bible.  God doesn’t help those who help themselves; God helps those who don’t deserve it.  God bestows unmerited favor.”

There’s more I want to say, but that will be in the next part.  For today, I’ll conclude with this: Constantine Campbell in his helpful book: “Grace: Accepting God’s Gift to You” writes a memorable true story.  He tells about how at the 1998 Golden Globe awards, actor Vine Rhames won a Golden Globe.  Rhames surprised everyone by asking Jack Lemmon to join him on the stage.  When Lemmon did so, Rhames said, “I believe that being an artist is about giving.  And I would like to give this to you, Mr. Jack Lemmon,” and he handed his Golden Globe Award to Lemmon!  Jack Lemmon received the award and said that this gesture was one of nicest, sweetest moments of his life.  Beloved readers, only one word can describe that event: grace. 

To be continued!