A preacher went out on the street and asked people this question: How does a person make it to heaven? The number one response he got from people was this: “You just have to be a good person.”
A man said to me once, “There are good people in every religion, whether they be Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, etc., and I just can’t believe that a loving God would send good people to hell.” Well, based on this man’s way of reasoning, he should go ahead and add atheists to his list too, since in his opinion, being a good person is the acid test for going to heaven, and I know many good people who are atheists.
The popular idea is that in order to make it to heaven one must give God evidence that he has been a good person. “Being Good Is Good Enough” is what many people believe, but the Bible never says that. In fact, Jesus said in Mark 10:18 – No one is good—except God alone.
Salvation on the basis of one’s goodness is bad theology. “Be Good” theology allows everyone to individually set the righteousness bar wherever they want to set it. Therefore, they only have to live up to their own personal standards and convictions to make it to heaven. In other words, I get to decide when “good” is good enough to punch my ticket to heaven. It’s a self-designed or manmade form of salvation that is empty and meaningless.
Jesus had a total disregard for “Be Good” theology. One of the clearest examples of this is a story he told about two guys who went up to the temple to pray: Luke 18:9-14 - To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This story in Luke 18 causes us to ask a couple of questions: How could somebody who is so bad be closer to God than somebody who is so good? Could it be that a person’s greatest barrier to salvation is trust in his or her own perceived measure of goodness? I can make myself feel really good about myself based on the metrics I use to determine what good is, especially when that metric has to do with me measuring my goodness against the goodness of other people.
Many people imagine that on Judgment Day there’s going to be a set of scales. And everything they have ever done good, is going to be put on one side of the scales, and everything they have ever done bad, is going to be put on the other side of the scales. And they’ll just hope that the good they did in life will outweigh the bad so that they can be saved and go to heaven. This common religious worldview is the biggest false doctrine when it comes to salvation, and one single Bible verse completely blows it out of the water: Romans 3:10 – No one is righteous—not even one. In fact, Isaiah said, “All of our righteousness is like filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6).
Notice what Jesus’ disciples asked Him after his encounter with the rich young ruler: Luke 18:26-27 – Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” That is the essence of the gospel.
Here is a question to ponder if you think it’s your goodness that gets you to heaven: If we can be saved by being good, then why did Jesus come and die on a cross for sinful man? Notice how Paul answered that question: Galatians 2:21 - I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Jesus is the only way to freedom, not your good works or perfect keeping of a list of laws. That should fill you and me with joy indescribable to know that we can never be good enough, but thank God that Jesus has already been good enough for us.
Titus 3:5-7 (NLT) – “…he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.
Jesus did not come to help good people to be better. He came to help dead people to be born again. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. It is a gift from God. It is the goodness of Christ and our faith and trust in his sinless perfection that allows us to be saved: 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NCV) – Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God. Being good is not good enough, but praise be to God that Jesus is good enough for us. At the point of our salvation, Jesus takes our sins and washes them away with his blood, and he takes his righteousness and makes us free with it. “By his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4).
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