The question of good people not being Christians or not going to heaven is a question I’ve often turned over in my mind.

Thinking about it one day an image popped into my head that I think explains it really well. Picture a curtain, a light fabric, loosely woven. If you get close enough you can see through it, but everything looks somewhat distorted and cloudy. Hanging loosely, it seems you could easily tear right through it, but it’s actually very strong and impermeable. This curtain is what separates us from God.

I’m going to try to explain this without tying my brain in knots.

The Bible says there are some who will do great things in the name of God and still not go to heaven.

Here is how the idea of the curtain illustrates it well for me. Though these people do not know God they have still sought Him, or at least the things of Him. The Christian life and the things of God interest them. They study, they go to church, they pray and they gain knowledge.

As they move forward in their seeking after God the curtain goes with them. They press into Church life. They volunteer and maybe become ministers. As they move deeper and deeper into Church life the curtain adjusts and allows them to advance. These people advance within the church, surpassing in knowledge some of those who truly believe. The problem is that they do not know God and all of their knowledge is distorted and skewed.

2 Corinthians 15 & 16 says that there is a veil that covers the hearts of people when the law of Moses is read and is only removed when one turns to Jesus. The law of Moses is seeking righteousness in our actions. It is those who believe they can earn their salvation by learning enough, volunteering enough or living holy enough who hear the Law even when the gospel is preached.

And this is the stumbling stone that the Bible talks about. It’s not in our power to remove the veil. The veil is removed for us, not by us.

The more a person struggles to remove the veil by effort, the more tired they become. This is why we hear of people who have been in the church for years and years suddenly declaring that they don’t believe anymore.

They say that they are tired of trying to be someone that they are not. They have stretched the veil until it became so restrictive that the slightest effort was a struggle. Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden light. Pride in their own ability has caused them to reject Jesus’ free gift.

The stumbling stone is believing that Jesus saves and not our efforts. God created us, God handed down the Law, God sent Jesus, God tore the veil, and Jesus saves us.

This stumbling stone will break us. Our sin nature is rooted in pride. We want to save ourselves, but we can’t. In fact we have never done anything, really. All our efforts and accomplishment are simply chasing after the wind and filthy rags.

So finally someone has stretched the veil as far as it will go, but they don’t want to give up. What happens?

They repent. Repentance isn’t asking for forgiveness. Repentance is throwing your empty hands up and telling God that you give up and you give in.

They believe. Belief isn’t just acknowledging a fact. Belief is placing all that you love in the able hands of God believing that God will accept you as you are.

Belief says that you trust God to accomplish what your efforts could not and to accomplish it well. The moment this happens the curtain is removed like a shot. At that very moment all the promises of God are realized. We are redeemed, we are justified, we are reconciled and we are forever children of God. Not by works, not by might, but by the Spirit of God.