“Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”  — he told the paralyzed man, “I tell you: Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”” Luke 5:21, 23-24 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/luk.5.21-23.CSB

People want to earn heaven rather than ask for heaven. Through ritual and practice, religion is the human attempt to earn God’s acceptance. It is the pride of humanity seeking to force God into compliance with our will by accepting us because we have done certain good things that cancel out the other things we have done that are not good. Christianity plays no such game with the One True God. The Only God is a perfect God, and the Bible calls Him Righteous and Holy. This God requires holiness, righteousness, and perfection of humanity to live with Him for eternity. He does not compromise His character or commands because humanity is disobedient, defiant, or deficient in living holy and perfect lives. This is why the Christian teaching is that all are condemned. No human can approach God and live with Him forever based upon their performance of any good works. Jesus is God’s solution for humanity’s eternal acceptance problem. Jesus is God. Jesus is a man Who lived among us perfectly and then offered Himself a sacrifice to exchange the consequence of our imperfect life for the glorious life He deserved by living exactly as God commanded all of us to live. This Jesus is now the Judge of all humanity for determining our eternal destiny. His judgment requires a pardon for our evil. He does not measure our evil against our good. Those in this life who reconcile with Him by confessing their evil, asking His forgiveness, and trusting completely and only on His work to reconcile them to God will be accepted by God. Those who depend upon their good works will be compared by Him to His perfect work, and they will fall short, thus receiving the condemnation they so richly deserve. Jesus alone can forgive sins, and all must ask Him to do so now before they meet Him face to face.