What does it take to go to heaven when you die? Is being good good enough? Is it enough to live a good, moral, ethical life? Now, it is certainly better to live that way than to be an immoral and unethical person. But is it enough?
If you were to die today and God were to ask you why He should let you into His heaven, what would you say? Most people would give an answer something like the following: "Well I’ve tried to be a good person. I’ve tried to live by the Golden Rule. I’ve tried not to treat other people badly. I’ve tried to do good. I’ve tried to avoid sinful situations. I’ve tried to live by ethical and moral standards in my own personal life and in my business life. I haven’t intentionally hurt people. I’ve tried to be a good person. Oh sure, I’ve done some things that were bad, but I think the good things that I’ve done would probably tip the scales in my favor so that I would be able to make it in."
I believe that most people in America would say that the good works that they do are sufficient to counterbalance the bad things they’ve done. After all, most of those things weren’t done intentionally. And they would argue that the things that were done intentionally were done primarily out of ignorance. So the good works would counterbalance the bad. What do you think? What are you trusting in to get to heaven?
There are basically two, and only two, methods by which people attempt to be saved. Either people attempt to be saved according to God’s terms or their own. And this is precisely what Jesus indicated would happen. He said in John 10:9, "I am the Door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved." In the verse immediately prior to this He said, "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers." The implication here is that He is the only way. There is one door. He is that door. If you go through that door you will be saved. Any other door does not lead to salvation. This is consistent with what Jesus said in John 14:6: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." In other words, there is a right way, and there is a wrong way. But it is not enough to say that Jesus is the right way. We must determine what that really means. And it is not what that means to you, as some mistakenly say. Truth is not truth as you see it. Truth is truth as it really is. Christianity is not what we think it is. Christianity is what it really is.
Let’s begin with what Christianity is not. Christianity is not our attempt at salvation. It is not based in works. By works, humankind has made consistent and valiant attempts at earning salvation.
This is the philosophy of the frog that fell into a large milkcan. It tried as hard as it could to leap out but found it was trapped. With nothing else to do, it just kept paddling and paddling, until it had finally churned a pat of butter — and presto! — saved itself by leaping from this self-made launching pad. It is amazing that many so-called Christians have this very philosophy of Christianity. This is what someone called "American folk religion." It can be summed up in statements like "I’m not perfect, but I’m doing the best I can." — "I try to do what’s right and consider myself a pretty good person — there are plenty of persons worse than me." — "I think I’ve done more good than I’ve done wrong; I should be okay." This may be the philosophy of American folk religion, but it is diametrically opposed to what the Bible teaches about true salvation.
History is replete with examples of how people have tried to earn their salvation by self-effort. This self-effort takes many forms. Some have tried to save themselves by self-affliction. The Hindus are well known for tormenting their bodies in an effort to deliver their souls. Even in Christianity you find occurrences of this. But long pilgrimages crawling on your knees, extended periods of starvation, self-flagellation with whips, or lying on beds of nails do not make us closer to God or earn us salvation. There may be something within us that feels the guilt of sin and a need to punish ourselves for it, but none of these self inflicted torments, however severe, are able to secure our deliverance.
Another way that people try to earn salvation is by good works. They think that by doing enough good works they can counterbalance the bad works they have done. If they end up with more good works than bad works, everything will work out, so to speak. Many people buy into this concept. Outwardly, it makes some sense. Many of our contemporary concepts of justice, fairness, and equity are based on logic like this.
The problem is that we are dealing with important and eternal things. A girl came to her pastor one day and said, "Pastor, I’m so upset. I think I have committed the sin of vanity." He replied "Well, why do you think that?" And she said, "Well, every time I look in the mirror I can’t help but think how beautiful I am." The pastor remarked, "My dear, that’s not a sin, it’s only a mistake." You see, the girl thought she was a siren, but she really was only a false alarm.
But sin is nothing to take lightly. We are not dealing with breaking someone’s model airplane and paying for a replacement. We are dealing with an eternal death in our souls. And that cannot be patched up by doing nice things. According to the verses preceding our text, we were born with a sin nature. We are described as dead, disobedient, depraved, and doomed. It will take more than a few surface works to clean up this mess. We are talking about spiritual transformation here. That is what is needed.
Seeing that fact, some redirect their good works into a spiritual arena. They try to save themselves by religious ritual. They substitute religious ceremonies for ordinary good works. They think that if they get baptized they will be saved. Or they think that if they are confirmed they will be saved. Or they think they will be saved by the sacraments. Or they think they will be saved by joining the church. But these are merely other forms of good works. They are religious works. And, in many ways, religious works are the most subtle and damning of all.
Because they are religious, they have a spiritual air about them. Clothed in God-talk, they seduce us into thinking that they are God-ordained. In fact, they deceive us into believing that since we are engaging in church approved activities, God will accept us. Several years ago, I came across a book with the title, Damned Through The Church. Written by John Warwick Montgomery, a learned legal and theological scholar, the book confronted the church with the reality that it may unwittingly contribute to a false assurance of salvation by failing to be certain of the true conversion of its members. By allowing people to join in a casual way, without questioning them about their salvation, we end up with many who are not converted. But they are not only not Christians, they are deceived into thinking they are, because they have been accepted by the church. They are damned through the church that should have led them to Christ.
All works, even religious works, come up short. We cannot do enough to make ourselves acceptable to a holy God. God is holy, and any sin is inconsistent with His nature. Furthermore, He cannot ignore it. If you were having guests over for dinner and found that on one plate there was a spot of hardened food from its last use, however small and insignificant, you would replace the plate. Our problem is even more severe. Unlike a plate that can be cleaned, the blight of sin is thoroughly ingrained into our being. We cannot be cleaned up. We must be replaced. Good works, even religious works only dust off the outside. We are like the Pharisees Jesus described in Matthew 23:27 as "white-washed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness." In the end, for all of our attempts at good works, we find that we are still unable to really do good. As the Bible says, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one" (Romans 3:10-12). The sum total of all our works add up to less than zero when compared to a holy God.
The reason God gives why His salvation is not as a result of works is that no one should boast. None of us will be able to say, "I saved myself." We must all come to Jesus at the same level. We must all come to Jesus in the same way. No matter what our education, station in life, title, degree, riches, or ability, we must all come in humility, acknowledging our need for Christ.
Because God knew that we could not earn our way to heaven, He provided another way. In fact, it is the only way. It is His way. We are told that it is by grace you have been saved through faith. If this is God’s way, then it is important for us to understand both grace and faith.
Grace is how God saves us. The word comes from the Greek word charis, which means "the undeserved favor of God." The idea is that we receive from God in a positive way what we do not deserve. When we deserve damnation, we receive salvation. But we do not receive it on the basis of any good works that we have done. This grace by which you have been saved is the gift of God. In other words, God bestows on us this undeserved favor, this grace, as a gift.
But on what basis? We have already seen that it is not on the basis of our works. If not our works, and if God cannot simply ignore sin, then on what basis can He give us this gift? It is on the basis of the work that Jesus did on the Cross. On the Cross of Calvary, Jesus bore the penalty for our sin. God does not ignore sin, but our sin has been borne by another. Speaking of Jesus, in 1 Peter 2:24 we read, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." Far from ignoring our sins, Jesus came to this earth to pay the penalty for our sins that we might receive the gift of God, which is salvation by grace . . . through faith.
Whoever you are, if you have received the true salvation of God, you have received it as a gift of God’s grace. Pascal said, "Grace is indeed required to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts this does not know what either a man or a saint is."
Being a saint is more than wishful thinking. I am reminded of one pastor who had a fellow die in his community, and it fell upon him to do the funeral. This guy was a notorious sinner. He was unethical in his business practices, immoral in his lifestyle. This guy was evil. And his brother was almost as bad as he was. Well, his brother came to the pastor as he was getting ready to do the eulogy and said, "Pastor I will pay you $1,000 if, from the pulpit, you will say that my brother was saint." The pastor thought for a moment and said "okay." So he got up and said, This man before me was a dirty, rotten, no-account sinner. He was immoral. He was unethical. He was one of the worst men that I ever knew. But next to his brother, he was saint." You may want to be thought of as a good person, and others may even say you are, but that does not make you good enough for God. Only His grace can turn you unrighteousness into righteousness.
Finally, we are told that the channel through which the grace of God comes to us is faith. But what is faith? Faith is not merely intellectual knowledge. Sometimes we think this because we exhort people to faith by telling them to believe. Indeed, the words believe and faith are used to refer to the same thing. But true biblical faith is not believing in Christ as we believe in Abraham Lincoln. Both Christ and Lincoln are historical figures. But biblical faith is not knowledge about Christ.
True biblical faith is not sentiment either. Many people equate faith with feelings. Feelings are not faith. Because of our background in church, or some religious experiences that we have had, we may equate faith with the nostalgic and fond memories we attach to these things. But faith is deeper than that.
A basic element of faith is trust. Faith begins with knowledge. There is a certain understanding about Christ that we must have. We must know that He died on the Cross for our sins, that He paid the penalty there to purchase our salvation. But then we must trust in Him as the only hope we have for salvation. Faith begins with knowledge but culminates in commitment. We must trust Christ with our lives.
A well-known story illustrates the importance of trust and commitment. The world-famous acrobat, Blondin, was born in France in 1824. His real name was Jean Francois Gravalet. Over the years, he became famous throughout Europe and America. In London he once played a violin on a tightrope 170 feet above the ground. On this side of the Atlantic, he became famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope 1,100 feet long and 160 feet above the water. Once he pushed a wheelbarrow across while blindfolded. Another time, he stood on his head on the wire. I understand that today in London there are Niagara and Blondin Avenues named for these amazing achievements. One day he carried his manager across Niagara Falls on his back. When he had put his manager down, he looked into the crowd and asked a man standing near, "Do you believe I could do that with you?" "Of course," the man answered, "I’ve just seen you do it." Then Blondin said, "Hop on, I’ll carry you across." The man called back, "Not on your life!"
The man wouldn’t go across with Blondin because he didn’t really believe. He had intellectual understanding. But he didn’t have real faith because he didn’t have trust. The evidence of faith would have been to trust himself to Blondin to carry him safely across. He believed intellectually that Blondin could do it, but he wasn’t willing to stake his life on it.
True faith in Jesus means that we stake our lives on Him. We commit ourselves to Him as our only hope for salvation. We give ourselves totally to Him, and burn our bridges behind us. Without trust, there is no faith. Without faith, there is no reception of grace. Without grace, there is no salvation.
So, what is the answer to our question? Isn’t being good good enough? I suppose the answer depends on the definition of what "good enough" is. If by "good enough" you mean good enough to please your friends and neighbors, then it is good enough. But if you mean good enough to get you into heaven, then it is not "good enough." Being good is not good enough to get anyone into heaven. Everyone gets into heaven in only one way — by a personal surrender to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is only as we trust Him and stake our lives on Him that we receive eternal life.
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