It's heartbreaking to realize that the majority of people in our world are spiritually lost and without Christ. Among them are the lovely and unlovely, the caring and uncaring, the eloquent and the crude. As we witness for Christ, we may wrongly assume that people with social graces are closer to God's kingdom.

However, pleasant people need Christ just as much as unpleasant ones because no one has a spiritual advantage when it comes to salvation. Paul explained why in Romans 3: "There is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . . Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law" (vv.22-23,28).

Yes, salvation is God's free gift to sinners. And since all of us are sinners, the only "contribution" we make toward our salvation is the sin from which we need to be saved! Oswald Chambers said that the only way a person can be born again is to renounce all good. He wrote, "Any coward among us will give up wrong things, but will he give up right things?" We cannot rely on our own natural goodness.

We need to share with all kinds of people the salvation Christ offers, for as the apostle Paul said, "There is no difference."  — Joanie Yoder