The Good Man Challenge
A preacher stood before a group of people offering a hundred dollars to anybody in the crowd who is truly good. One man stepped forward and claimed to be a good person.
"Have you told a lie in your life?" the preacher went at his conscience.
"Yes" was the answer.
"How many? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? More than a hundred?" the preacher went deep.
"More than a hundred" the man replied with obvious uneasiness.
"What do you call someone who tells lies?"
"A liar" the man replied with guilt on his face.
"Have you stolen something? Have you borrowed something that you did not return?" the preacher further queried.
"Yes" the man replied looking down.
"What are you then?" the preacher probed deeper.
"A thief" replied the man almost in a whisper.
"No" the preacher countered, "you are a lying thief to be exact according to your own admission."
The preacher then told the man frankly that he cannot give the one hundred dollar bill to him based on who he was. He was not a good man at all. But the preacher said: "I will offer this one hundred dollar bill to you as an undeserved favor. Will you accept it?"
The man's face beamed with joy and nodded. He could not believe his ears. The preacher then approached him and laid on his hand a crisp one hundred dollar bill.
The preacher then said: "You see, God is like that to us sinners. We are all sinners. We don't deserve to be saved. But God offers His salvation to us for free as an undeserved favor. Anyone who humbles himself and relies solely on Christ and what He did on the cross will be saved."
