The Salvation of the Unrighteous – Factor

Teodora Dimova, Portal Culture

At the Last Judgment, called in other European languages ​​the Last Judgment, “when the Son of Man comes in His glory”, everyone will be placed on the right or on the left, according to whether they have fed the hungry, watered the thirsty, taken in the stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick or visited the imprisoned in a dungeon. This exhausts the conditions listed by Jesus Christ. It is striking that the stated requirements are a manifestation of care and humanity towards near and far, and none of them are theological. The only and sufficient condition to be at the right hand of God is to have done good during your life. In another place Christ is even more emphatic that “whosoever shall give one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, shall not lose his reward.”

There is another principle by which God can save men, where God is ready for even greater mercy. It is told about in the book “Genesis” from the Old Testament. This is the amazing dialogue between Abraham and God – one of the most moving stories in the Bible. God learned of the great complaint against Sodom and Gomorrah because of the grievous sin their inhabitants were committing, and he came down to see if they were doing just as the complaint against them was.

Abraham knew that these cities were mired in vice, but he hoped that righteous people also lived in them and because of them the cities would be spared. He did not know how many there were, he knew that they were not many, and he was convinced that the righteous and sinners could not have the same lot. If there is no final justice – “last judgment”, then righteousness becomes meaningless. This gives him courage to stand before God as an equal. Abraham’s courage comes from his conviction that God cannot be unjust, and cannot destroy the righteous with the wicked, and make the righteous become the same as the wicked. He was convinced that justice is equally necessary for both God and man.

And Abraham starts from afar – won’t God spare the city mired in sin if at least 50 righteous people live in it. Abraham doesn’t know if there are that many. God tells him that he will not. Abraham does not relent in his request for mercy, reduces the number by five and again insists on mercy. But not that much. Abraham keeps reducing the number – 40, 30, 20, 10. God gives in and gives in to Abraham’s insistence. He is ready to spare the city even if at least ten righteous people live in it. It turns out that there aren’t that many. It is amazing how God lessens His severity and increases His mercy, agrees to Abraham’s pleas and exhortations, accepts his conditions step by step.

Most notably, if there had been even just ten righteous men in Sodom, the city would have been spared. The wicked were much more. Thousands. As they are, with all their sins, they would have been spared because of the ten righteous. No conditions are placed on them. There is no requirement that they also become righteous or at least not commit such grave sins. God makes a promise to Abraham to show mercy to them because of the ten righteous. The ratio between the righteous and the wicked is incommensurable. The righteous are but a handful, but even so, they would be enough to spare the whole city.

God does not weigh righteousness and sin on the scales. To justice He always adds mercy, and Abraham knew this, and so he enters into this amazing dialogue with Him.

Our first wonder is how does the righteousness of the righteous extend to the wicked? How does good manifest itself as an antidote to evil? The question is as much theological as it is social. There is no perfect society made up of only righteous people or only good people. But a healthy society is like a healthy body – when an organ in it gets sick, the other healthy organs cope with the disease and it recovers. The diseased organ heals thanks to the healthy ones. When the receptors for good and evil of a healthy society are preserved, it knows what is legal and what is not, according to the unwritten laws by which it lives and with which it has grown for centuries, and is vigilant for transgressors, it knows that they represent a danger to himself. By being intolerant of vice, it takes care of itself.

In a sick society it is the opposite. It treats evil with tolerance, with indifference it allows evil to grow until it imperceptibly covers everyone. Thus, a critical limit is crossed and the processes become irreversible. A similar dynamic is also observed in nature – it has the ability to purify itself up to a critical limit, beyond which the processes become irreversible and destruction follows.

God’s condition was that there should be at least 50 righteous people in Sodom in order to preserve the city. Abraham exhorted Him to reduce this limit – that is, he asked for the deficiency of human righteousness to be added by God’s righteousness and God’s mercy. God accepts his prayer and agrees. He also agrees with the next request. It also takes the next step. God’s righteousness is limitless. God’s mercy surpasses all human unrighteousness. Until the critical limit is reached. Beyond him, God’s mercy does not lose its power, but it loses its meaning, because there is no longer anyone to whom it can be applied, there is no vessel in which it can be placed. This limit is as critical as it is tragic. “And the Lord departed, ceasing to speak with Abraham.”

The ugliness of the scene that follows is shocking. The fall of the inhabitants of Sodom is beyond imagination. Against this background, Lot stands out in contrast – the only righteous man left in Sodom. All his virtues stand out – his generous hospitality, manliness, incorruptibility, self-sacrifice. Then “the angels, by God’s mercy to him, took him by the hand, his wife, and his two daughters, and led him out.”

God is ready to save the wicked for the sake of the righteous, but he does not allow the righteous to perish for the sake of the wicked.

Finally, here is another example – the return of the Prodigal Son to his father’s house. When he claimed his share of the inheritance and left his father’s house, he acted in an extremely vulgar manner. Later, because of his vicious life, he collapsed to an animal existence. But he has not forgotten his father, and for him this turns out to be the only saving thread. Just as it is important to honor the parents who gave us life, it is equally important not to forget our heavenly Parent.

But we know that there are many people living in the world who do not believe in God, but do good, and much more than believing Christians. They do it out of conviction, selflessly and wholeheartedly. I have been asked and I have asked myself what will be the final fate of these people, will they be saved? Only God can answer this question, I can only speculate.

Christ has given us an example of how to pray. The first word of the Lord’s Prayer begins with the address Father – “Our Father who art in heaven”. Without it, all subsequent requests become unaddressed. How would a father treat his child who does not recognize him as a father. It may be very good, it may be the best, but will not this father suffer because of his child’s treatment of him? However great the father’s love, however immeasurable his mercy, they could not lessen the suffering caused to him by his child’s attitude.

Therefore, I think that in addition to the protection of the righteous over the unrighteous, in addition to the kindness to feed the hungry, we also need to address our heavenly Father with kindness and tenderness.

Or maybe if there are at least ten righteous people left on earth, because of them we will all be saved?