How Can People Like Hitler Be Saved?

There is one often-cited question by unbelievers which gets to the heart of what's so perplexing about Christian grace: "How can wicked people like Hitler ever be saved?" Christians are usually not so perplexed, because their faith is based on two fundamental truths that contain the answer to this question:

1) As much as we like to think otherwise, we humans are all capable of the most wretched sins, and we are all equal in the extent to which we fall short of the glory of God, which makes all of us as much in need of grace as Hitler.

2) Anyone who recognises their sins and Christ as their saviour is saved, because salvation is not based on our moral deeds, it is a free gift given because of God's love and grace on the cross.

Not only is it the case that salvation is gift-based not merit-based, it's also the case that even some of God's greatest spokespeople had notoriously tarnished pasts. Take three of the most famous - Moses, David and St Paul: Moses killed an Egyptian to defend a Hebrew; David, after sleeping with Uriah's wife Bathsheba, gave military instruction that he knew would cause the execution of Uriah, freeing up him to marry Bathsheba; and St Paul (when he was Saul, before his conversion) persecuted Christians to their death.

If some of the Bible's most roguish characters can be not just saved, but be chosen as key exponents of the Divine truths, then it's unsurprising that there's an ease with which all repentant sinners can be forgiven and have salvation, even people generally perceived to be the worst in human history.