How God’s Goodness Can Restore You—Part Three

In Psalm 23, David writes that God restores the soul. But what does that actually mean for the three specific things that warp a person’s inner life—guilt, grudges, and grief? Rick Warren argues that the entire Christian faith hinges on a single transaction: Jesus took humanity’s sin onto himself and gave his own goodness in return. The mechanism is not a list of religious duties but a finished work that requires only one response.

The core exchange: guilt for goodness

Warren distinguishes Christianity from every other religion by two words: "do" versus "done." Every other belief system, he says, offers a list of requirements to earn heaven, leaving a person uncertain whether they have done enough. Christianity, by contrast, is built on the claim that Jesus declared "It is finished" from the cross—not "I am finished," since he rose three days later, but that the payment for sin is complete. The only thing required to enter heaven is humility: admitting that you cannot get there on your own. "That's the sin that'll keep you out of heaven," Warren says—the pride of thinking you are good enough for a perfect place.