Question: Some people seem to live perfectly well without God. They have principles and moral standards, and some are even better people than certain Christians. Could they simply have no need for God?

Answer:

I received this question about ten years ago. I already had some thoughts at the time, but never finished writing my answer because I wanted to think more deeply about it. Now I have finally put my current thoughts together, though I expect to keep thinking about the question.

It is not an easy question to answer, because it contains several assumptions that need examining. Is having a good life the same as being good? What standard are we using to judge whether someone is a good person? Is being better than some Christians enough? And when we say that we “need God,” do we mean that we need him to help life go smoothly and make us better people—or might he want to give us much more than that?

I suspect this is not just one person’s question. “If someone is already a good person and doing well, why do they need God?” may be one reason some people do not seriously seek God. It may even lead Christians to think that the good people around them have no particular need, and that helping them come to know God is therefore unnecessary.

But does this way of thinking already limit God’s gifts to helping us live comfortably and behave well? If God wants to give us far more, our sense that we “already have enough” may keep us from discovering what he offers.

By “good people,” I mean what people ordinarily mean: those who have principles and moral standards and are willing to care for and help others. I do not mean people who have never sinned or have no faults. Still, neither our own assessment nor other people’s approval is the final standard of goodness.

I do not think we need to deny the real goodness of such people. But being sincerely willing to do good does not mean that someone no longer needs God, or that they can earn eternal life through their good deeds.

The Rich Young Man: Doing Good Can Come at a Cost

Mark records that a man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him, and asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus mentioned the commandments against murder, adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, and defrauding others, along with the command to honour one’s parents. The man replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

Mark specifically tells us, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mark 10:17–21).

Jesus did not contradict his account, and the passage does not describe his good deeds as a pretence. We need not begin by assuming that his goodness was merely superficial.

Jesus then told him, “You lack one thing,” and instructed him to sell what he owned, give to the poor, and come and follow him.

On hearing this, he went away sorrowful, because he had many possessions.

I think this request also presented him with a challenge. He had long kept the commandments, but would he still be willing to help the poor when doing so meant giving up his own wealth?

His earlier good deeds did not thereby become false. But on this occasion, he could not get past that obstacle. This shows how great a challenge it can be when doing good conflicts with our own interests. It does not mean that no one could meet such a challenge. It means that having done good before does not guarantee a willingness to keep doing good at any cost. Our assessment of ourselves cannot replace God’s judgment either.

Yet the story does not end by making salvation a matter of who behaves best. When the disciples asked who could be saved, Jesus answered:

“With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Mark 10:27

Ultimately, salvation depends on God’s saving action, not on our accumulating enough good deeds. As Titus puts it:

“he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”

Titus 3:5

The rich young man was himself a religious person. Even so, neither his religious life nor his good deeds could earn him eternal life from God.

The Goodness of Good People Can Be Real

As for the “good people” in the original question, we likewise need not begin by denying their goodness.

Of course, some people are good only on the surface. But I do not think we should look at everyone through the suspicion that “they may have hidden sins.” We can acknowledge that someone’s good deeds are real and still ask why they need God.

The Bible itself recognises that people who do not yet know God can nevertheless have the capacity to distinguish right from wrong and to love others.

After the flood, God still grounded the value of human life in humanity’s being made in his image (Genesis 9:6). James likewise describes human beings as made in God’s likeness (James 3:9). Even though human beings sin, God’s image has not entirely disappeared from them.1

Romans 2:14–15 also says that Gentiles who do not have the law of Moses can nevertheless do what the law requires. Their conscience bears witness, and their thoughts accuse or excuse them. Human moral discernment is imperfect, but it is real.

Jesus himself said, “even sinners love those who love them” (Luke 6:32). He also spoke of people who, though evil, know how to give good gifts to their children (Matthew 7:11).

Jesus used these examples to call people further, but he did not deny that “sinners” can love others or that people who are evil can give good things to their children. We likewise need not explain away every good deed as false or selfish.

First John 5:19 says that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” This describes the world’s condition; it does not mean that everything an unbeliever does is evil. A person’s real goodness can coexist with their still living under the influence of sin, death, and the powers of darkness.

What If Doing Good Makes Life Worse for Us?

Let us return to the original question: “If I can live perfectly well without faith, why do I still need God?”

If doing well for ourselves is enough, why should we persist in doing good when it brings loss, criticism, or even persecution? If we should do good even then, the value of goodness cannot be determined simply by whether our lives go smoothly.

This does not mean that the good people in the question only care about themselves. Some may be willing to suffer for what is right. What needs examining is the argument that “because life is going well, I do not need God.” It has not yet answered why we ought to do good, especially when doing so makes our own lives harder.

We need to distinguish two questions: how people know what is good, and why we should still do good when it comes at a cost.

“I do not need to believe in God to know that killing innocent people is wrong” can be entirely true. But it establishes that religious belief is not a prerequisite for recognising right and wrong. It does not yet explain why killing innocent people really is wrong, rather than merely something we or our society dislike.

If our reasons for doing good are only “I like it,” “everyone agrees,” or “it benefits me,” those reasons may falter when our feelings change, the crowd turns against us, or doing good begins to hurt us. Some people who were willing to do good become discouraged by repeated bad outcomes, give up, or simply go along with everyone else.

The Christian answer that makes sense to me is that goodness is grounded in God’s nature, rather than in personal preference, public opinion, or immediate results. Good does not become evil because people oppose it, nor does it cease to be worth pursuing because it has not yet produced a favourable outcome.

This does not mean that people without faith cannot pay a price for justice, or that Christians are necessarily stronger than others. It means that faith gives us a reason to do good that does not change with circumstances or outcomes.

Goodness Is Itself a Gift

From a Christian perspective, our capacity to recognise, appreciate, and practise goodness cannot be separated from our being made in God’s image. We do not need to know God before we can have a conscience. But having a conscience does not mean that we are its source.

James writes:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

James 1:17

Our continuing capacity for conscience, love, and good deeds cannot be separated from God’s creation and grace.

So when someone sincerely wants to do good, we need not belittle that goodness. But neither is it something they have created entirely independently of God. “They live so well that they do not need God” overlooks the fact that the goodness they value and practise is already God’s gift.

Our ability to do good is itself God’s grace. We have nothing to boast about, and cannot therefore demand that God give us eternal life.

Not Just Living Well, but Asking What We Live For

Life is not only about whether we are doing well. We also need to ask what we are living for. Yet we may not seriously consider that question, especially when life is comfortable and we feel satisfied. It is then easier to think there is no need to ask further.

Still, “I am already living a good life” leaves important questions unanswered. What am I living for? What grounds the goodness and human dignity I value? And where is my life ultimately heading?

C. S. Lewis compared his belief in Christianity to his belief that the sun has risen: “not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”2

This expresses well why I believe in God. God’s existence helps me understand not only where goodness comes from, but also why every person has dignity and why human worth does not depend on wealth, ability, or other people’s opinions. It helps me understand why love and sacrifice are worth the cost, why justice remains worth pursuing even when it has not yet been achieved, and why human life is more than birth, daily existence, and death: it has a God-given purpose and a hope beyond death.

This does not mean that believing in God removes every difficulty. It means that Christianity enables me to understand these things together. That is why “I am already living a good life” is still not, to me, a reason to conclude that we do not need God.

We Need More Than Moral Improvement

But God does more than help us understand life or give us reasons to keep doing good. Through Christ, he also offers a life that we cannot obtain for ourselves.

Even a person with an excellent moral life remains mortal. Doing good can help us live better, but it cannot make us imperishable.

In 1 Corinthians 15:45–49, Paul describes the first Adam as “a living being” and the last Adam as “a life-giving spirit,” contrasting the earthly man with the heavenly Christ. What we need is more than an improvement in our present way of living. Through Christ, we need to receive an immortal life that we do not possess in ourselves. Paul goes on to say that “this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53).

Romans 8:23 likewise says that even believers who already have the firstfruits of the Spirit still await “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” They are already God’s children, yet still await the full realisation of salvation in resurrection and bodily redemption.

Salvation in the New Testament, then, means more than turning bad people into good people, and more than the forgiveness of sins. It also includes reconciliation with God, renewal beginning in this life, becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and future resurrection into an imperishable life.

This is why even a good person still needs Christ: the life God gives is a gift we cannot earn through good deeds, but can receive through faith. Even if someone feels that they already live very well, it is still worth seriously seeking to know the God who gives life.

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Notes

  1. On the human condition after sin, God’s image, and salvation, see “Are We Born Guilty Because of Adam’s Sin? Rethinking the Doctrine of Original Sin.” ↩︎
  2. C. S. Lewis, “Is Theology Poetry?”, in The Weight of Glory. Lewis compares belief in Christianity to belief that the sun has risen: it is something he sees, and also the light by which he sees other things. ↩︎

References

  • C. S. Lewis, “Is Theology Poetry?”, in The Weight of Glory.
  • Gregory Koukl, Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity’s Toughest Challenges, chapter 7.

Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV), 2025 text.

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