I think the above quote pretty much sums up the entirety of the "salvation by nebulous goodwill" method of reasoning. Aurelius assumes that a truly just god cares nothing for piety or devotion and requires none from his worshippers. Virtue(which, I might add, was very different for the pagan than it is for the Christian) is enough to please the gods. Of course, this is coming from a man whose "gods" were themselves imperfect, flawed beings, who could perhaps be sated by mere acts of goodwill and nobility. Aurelius seems to think he has his ducks in a row, asserting that diety would conform to his idea of what a "just god" should be. If the "gods" dared to differ from dear Marcus's template, he might simply choose to disregard them, declaring them to be undesirable and more or less unworthy of worship. Upon death, Aurelius might have prepared to step into a great void, (if, as he speculates, there are no gods) leaving behind nothing except a presence in the memories of his loved ones. And when they fell, too, his legacy would disappear, leaving absolutely nothing behind. His life of pagan nobility would have been for naught.
Even in the simple assurance of salvation that is proclaimed every Sunday at my church, we are miles ahead of Aurelius. We need not strive to win the Almighty's pleasure with our nobility or attempts at virtue, for all who have tried to do so have failed, save Christ. The pagan works all his life to build a deposit in the Bank of Universal Karma, hoping that in the end, it will be large enough to purchase his ticket into Paradise. For the unbeliever, there is no resounding trump as he enters the afterlife, no "well done, good and faithful servant." There is only fear and doubt. The Christian, however, runs towards death with the anticipation of meeting his Lord at last, knowing that his life has been in the service of his King, by the grace he has received through Christ.
Aurelius cannot even definitively say that his gods exist. Their existence is dependent upon him and what he thinks. He has placed his gods into molds and bid them conform to what he views as good and just. Otherwise, he threatens to simply ignore them out of existence, for the power and worth of Aurelius's gods was reliant upon his belief in them. Can he look at these beings and call them gods? Gods who have no authority over their own reality? My God exists whether I want him to or not. He is not controlled by the whims and beliefs of men, his creatures. He reigns whether the unbeliever wants him to or no, something which Aurelius's gods could never do. The modern secularist would very much like to say that the Church and her members have no real bearing on society, simply because they worship a supposedly imaginary and irrelevant god. But Christ has indeed already conquered the earth, and even now rules over it, something which pagans refuse to accept, and many Christians seem to forget. In light of this fact, the Christian lives a virtuous life, not to gain favour with a fickle diety, but because he has been given new life in Christ. Virtue is not the cause of salvation, but the effect, and that makes all the difference.
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