When a good person dies, you will always hear someone remark, “Well if anyone’s in heaven, its Grandpa Joe, He was such a good man. He was so good you know; he’d give you the shirt off his back.” Or how about, “She’s in heaven now; she was such a good and kind person.”Well, OK, who wouldn’t want to have a funeral like that? Imagine an alternative one with everyone standing hand-in-hand at Aunt Bessie’s graveside service with the rousing chorus of, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, offered as the recessional hymn.
There are many people who were good in life and have left a wonderful legacy to their family and friends with great memories for those left behind. Still, is being good, good enough? Now that’s a good question. When you consider the length of eternity it’s pretty important to understand how to get into heaven. And if goodness does it, exactly how much of it do you need for the Golden Ticket?
If you die young and haven’t had much chance to chalk up a lot of “good” what happens then? Since we have all done some bad stuff in life, does it cancel out whatever we have done that’s good? Then, are we looking at scales to see which has the greater weight? What happens if we do good but with bad motive? Are we ever good enough?
The truth is that no one is good enough on their own to get into heaven. Heaven is the home of Almighty God who is holy and pure and perfect. How can any of us rightfully stand in his presence?
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6).
Uh Oh! There it is in black and white. According to Isaiah, being good isn’t good enough. Now what? Being stuck for eternity in the depths of the hoary underworld with Satan and all his minions? Is there any other way?
According to the Bible, God bypassed our good because it wasn’t good enough and made a better and easier way to spend eternity with him. How about if someone who really is good stands in for us? How about if we get in on somebody else’s Golden Ticket? That’s exactly what happened.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
God the Father sent Jesus, God the Son, to take the punishment for our sins so we could get into heaven on His goodness.
Look at it this way; imagine standing before the throne of God and being asked to justify your life. “How do you plead; guilty or innocent”? Tough one, eh? If you plead innocent you are a liar because we are all guilty by our very sin nature. But then if you plead guilty you are condemning yourself to eternity in H.E. double hockeysticks. Here’s the deal, as a Christian you always Plead the blood! It is the blood of Jesus, God the Son that secures heaven for any of us.
Well gee Bishop Ian; if being good doesn’t secure heaven does it have any value? Absolutely; doing good is our legacy if we have accepted the righteousness of Christ and become his disciples. Look again at the verse above, and then check out the one below.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Certainly we are supposed to do good every chance we get and we will receive rewards in heaven (though not heaven itself) based on our good works while we lived. Being good extends the kingdom of God here upon the earth and as His disciples we are all called to that service.
No one wants to think of a good man or woman being anywhere after death other than heaven. I understand that. But the real question is: when he or she is before God to give an account of their life; whose goodness are they standing on? What about you?
Be Standing with Christ,
Bishop Ian
