I'm A Good Person

I used to think that getting into heaven required something on my part namely being a good person.  My rationale was that I'm not perfect but I'm also not as bad as Hitler or others who may have committed some pretty heinous crimes and compared to them I look pretty good.  So therefore I'm a good person and God will let me into heaven.  In fact most world religions say that you have to do something to get right with God so he'll open the door to heaven for you.  This is called works and Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and pretty much every other world religion outside of Christianity says you have to work your way to heaven or the nirvana or zen state.  Even some Christian denominations such as Catholicism say you have to accept Jesus but you also have to get baptized or do some other type of works to get entry into God's kingdom.

What I didn't understand (and neither do these worldviews) is the standard for good.  When I compare myself to Hitler I'm using a relative (subjective) standard.  What if you compare Hitler to the Chinese dictator Mao though?  Mao was responsible for the murder of at least 25 million people so does that mean Hitler is a good person compared to Mao?  What if you compare Jeffery Dahmer to Hitler?  He 'only' murdered 17 people so is he a good person compared to Hitler and the millions he was responsible for the murder of?  What if I compare myself to Mother Teresa?  She spent her entire life serving the poor and had a big impact on the world and those around her.  Am I still good if I compare myself to Mother Teresa?  What if the good standard is Mother Teresa and I don't meet it?  What if it's better than Mother Teresa and I don't meet it, what happens when I meet God?  The problem with this type of good standard is it's ever changing and I don't really know if I'm good enough to get to heaven before I die.  How fair or just is a god that doesn't tell us what the standard is and we just have to hope for the best when we get there?

So what does Biblical Christianity say about the standard for getting into heaven?  The Bible says that the standard for gaining entrance into heaven is perfection.  Never breaking one of God's laws ever gets you into heaven.  Never lying, never stealing, never lusting.  Never putting money, ourselves, or even others ahead of God.  Honoring our parents always.  If we do any of these things even once we've broken God's law and deserve to be disciplined.

The reaction sometimes is "You've got to be kidding!  One lie and someone will go to hell!"  Has there ever been someone who has only lied once or only broke one of God's laws?  Pretty doubtful.  But to say that is really not to understand the nature of God.  Suppose you had a family member that was brutally assaulted and left disabled for the rest of their life.  The person is caught and goes to trial and is found guilty.  He is brought before the judge and the criminal says "Yes, your honor I did what I'm accused of.  However, on the way to the court room today I was driving behind a school bus and the school bus was hit by a semi and burst into flames.  I stopped and pulled 10 school children from the burning bus saving their lives.  I've got several witnesses here who will say I did this.  Saving 10 lives outweighs permanently disabling one person so I should be let go."  If the judge let the person go we'd be furious and feel that justice was not served for our family member. We'd think that judge was a horrible judge and we'd be right.

The fact is that assault still requires punishment no matter how many good things have been done.  But this is exactly what worldviews that promote works say: Yeah, you've done wrong but if you do enough good things you'll erase the bad things you've done.  We wouldn't accept that for criminals but we want to accept that for ourselves.  So why is it we'd find it unbelievable that God would require punishment for breaking his laws no matter how many good things we've done?  We want justice but when it's us facing that justice it's a different story.  God is holy and not punishing law breakers would not be holy.

So given that we're all guilty and we're facing judgement where does that leave us?  It leaves us facing punishment no matter how good we think we are.  It's not a very good picture.  However, there is good news:  God has provided a solution.  Most of us have probably heard that Jesus died for our sins.  But what does that actually mean?  Jesus was sent to live a perfect life and broke none of God's laws.  He was the only one who could face God and be allowed entry into heaven on his own record.  Because he was blameless he is the only one who could take our punishment for us.  He gave up his right to have no punishment to take yours and mine so we didn't have to.

To illustrate this substitution imagine if someone who had lied stepped up and said they would take your punishment for lying.  They would already be facing punishment for their own lies so it wouldn't mean much.  That is why Jesus dying for us is such a big deal.  He is the only who didn't deserve it but yet he took the punishment.  This satisfies the requirement for our law breaking to be punished but it also gives us the opportunity to be right with God.  All we have to do is admit we've broken God's laws and accept Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross.  That's it.  No good works just faith in Jesus.  But it's still our choice.  We can take our own punishment and spend eternity separated from God in hell or we can spend eternity with our creator in heaven.

Works do have a place in Christianity but it has nothing to do with whether we go to heaven or not.  We do good works because God loves everyone (whether they love him or not) and we love God.  How much better are good works if we do them out of love for God than if we do them out of love for ourselves?  It makes works a completely selfless act as opposed to doing something to save ourselves.

Some might say (I did): How do you know Christianity is right and any of the other worldviews aren't?  Well, quite simply it's the evidence.  If haven't examined the evidence look at some of the resources mentioned in other blog posts or some of the listed books as a start.  If you haven't examined the evidence for your own worldview you owe it to yourself to look at it.  Don't leave your eternal destination up to chance and hope.  Examine the evidence objectively and follow where it leads.