Are you good enough for heaven?

Allow me to answer for you – no, you are not. But please read on, as there is some good news.

But before the good news, how do I know that you are not good enough to get to heaven – because the Bible says that nobody is. Every human being (you, me, everyone) is tainted with the sin of the first man (Adam), and because we are tainted with sin and have sinned (Romans 5:12) God cannot not allow us into heaven.

So, you say, how can I make myself good enough for heaven? And I reply, you can’t, none of us can. The antidote to our sin is not us trying to be a ‘good person’, because even people who do good things still have sin (see above paragraph).

The antidote to sin is righteousness. To be ‘righteous’ is to have good standing before God. When a person has a good standing before God, then God can allow them into heaven.

So, you say, how can I become righteous before God? Good question.

God knows that we are not good enough for heaven, and he knows that we cannot make ourselves good enough (i.e. righteous), so the good news is that he has done all that is necessary for us. It is all to do with sin…

When sin came into the world through Adam, death came into the world too. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Now because God is holy and righteous, sin cannot be ignored – it must be dealt with.

The reason Jesus died on the cross was to take the punishment for sin (including yours) which every person (including you) deserves (i.e. death), and, by his resurrection three days later, to defeat it and make eternity in heaven available to us.

It is when we believe and trust in this (it is called the gospel of the grace of God) for our salvation that God sees us as righteous rather than as sinners. As a believer, when God looks at us, he now sees a person not stained by sin, but rather a person who has ‘put on’ the righteousness of Jesus. And because we are now seen as righteous, we can be allowed into heaven.

You may ask, how could Jesus pay the price for my sin? The answer is that as the Son of God he did not inherit sin from Adam as we did and he did not sin during his lifetime (2 Corinthians 5:21). Being sinless, he was therefore qualified to take the punishment for our sin because he did not deserve any punishment of his own.

Does this apply to everyone, you may wonder? Yes it does. The Bible says that the righteousness required by God is available “unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22).

What I have just described will come as a surprise to many people, perhaps to you too. Many people believe either that they are already good enough for heaven, or that by doing ‘good works’ they can make themselves good enough.

Neither of these things are true. To believe either of these things is called ‘self-righteousness’ (trying to find righteousness in oneself), and this simply does not work. The Bible is very clear – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Here is the gospel (good news): “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

And here is what to do: Believe that Christ died for your sins, that he was buried and that he rose again, and trust this for your salvation.

To return to the original question, no, you are not good enough for heaven, but thank God that you don’t need to be.