Most people think Christianity is a morality project: Do good. Avoid sin.

But Jesus told the priests of Israel (the most moral people on earth), "The prostitutes enter the kingdom of God before you" (Mt 21:31).

Wait. What??

How can prostitutes enter God's kingdom before priests? Jesus explains in the next verse: 

"John came to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him" (Mt 21:32).

Prostitutes and thieves were entering God's kingdom before priests because they believed John's message and the priests didn't.

OK, so what was John's message? 

John pointed at Jesus and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29).

According to John, the way of righteousness, the answer to sin, and the entrance into God's kingdom, is not a code of ethics, it's a Person.

All of us, priests and prostitutes, have a morality problem –– a sin problem (Rm 3:10-12). Since the doctor slapped our fannies we have rebelled against our Creator (Ps 51:5), defying Him and becoming our own gods. Romans 3 is clear: No one is good. No one is moral.

How did God respond to our rebellion? In the most mind-boggling way.

He died for us.

Two thousand years ago Jesus came not to dole out our judgment (Jn 3:17) but to bear our judgment.

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross" (1 Pet 2:24).

Jesus bore the punishment for our sins in our place on the cross, and three days later rose again (1 Cor 15:1-5).

This is the gospel. This is Christianity.

God's primary goal is not to make you moral, it's to make you His. He does this, not through a set of rules, but through the death and resurrection of His Son. Christianity isn't a morality project, it's a grace project.