IGT

Are You Good Enough to Get to Heaven?

Are you good enough to get to Heaven? Many people try every day to be the best that they can be so that one day God will let them make it to Heaven. But try as they might, they just keep on failing. Why? Well, they just can’t seem to overcome the temptation to sin. What is sin? When we break God’s Law, then we have sinned against Him. So, how many times can we sin before we are not good enough to enter Heaven? Just once. It is the failure to never break any of God’s laws that places us on the path toward Hell in the end. Yet, is it even possible to never sin? God says that it is not possible. He says that …everyone has sinned (and that) we all fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23). We are actually born with a nature to sin - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5). From birth, we all fall short of the righteous standards of a Holy perfect God. (There is an age of accountability before which God will receive children who obviously have sinned, yet, realistically have no actual understanding of sin.)

So, what is God’s standard? Well, imagine yourself in school and you really want to graduate someday. Yet, in order to do so, you need to never fall short of making perfect grades - ever. Do you think that is possible? Of course not. That kind of perfection is truly impossible to achieve. Yet, God’s glorious standard is, in fact, perfection. When we broke any one of God’s Laws, we became less than perfect from that point forward with no way of ever getting that perfection back - on our own. What are God’s Laws? In Deuteronomy 5:6-21, God told us His ten perfect commandments:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image…you shall not bow down to them.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

5. Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.

God says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people - none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.”

The fact is, at some point in our lives, or even every day, we have all broken at least one if not all of God’s Laws. Have you ever stolen anything? It doesn’t matter how valuable or how big the item was. By taking it, you have broken the eighth commandment. Therefore, you are a thief. Have you ever used God’s name in the place of a cuss word? When you use the name “Jesus” or “God” disrespectfully, you are breaking God’s third commandment. Have you ever disrespected your parents and broken the fifth commandment? Read this one carefully as it comes with an added warning - or promise.

When you commit murder, you are breaking God’s sixth commandment. Murder? You might say that you would never do that! Yet, in Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus gets to the very heart of the matter. If you hate someone so much that you actually wish them dead, you have committed murder in your heart. You see, God even knows what you are thinking. If you sit around and think thoughts that displease God, you are guilty.

So, then, how could we ever be good enough to get to Heaven since we can never keep all of God’s Laws? God in Romans 3:19-20 says that the Law’s ...purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Basically, no one is ever able to keep these laws. In fact, He gave us these laws to make us aware of just how sinful we really are. We are all guilty with no excuses.

So, again, can you ever be good enough to get to Heaven? Of course not. God says in the Bible ...there is none who does good, no, not one (Romans 3:12). He said that ...there is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10). Basically, there are no good people worthy of Heaven. In fact, God says in Revelation 21:8 that ...the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. This is Hell and we are all only worthy of it and not Heaven.

The point of God’s Law is to show us that no one gets to Heaven by being the best that we can be - because we can never achieve the perfection that is required by a Holy perfect God. No one gets to Heaven because of all the good things that they have done - because even the best that we can do, all our so-called righteous deeds are still like filthy rags compared to God’s perfect standard of rightness. Also, we can never do enough good works to make our sins disappear. You just can’t get to Heaven by trying to be a good person. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are (Romans 3:21-22). Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).

God provided a way to be free from sin. Jesus, who never sinned and was perfect in every way, willingly allowed Himself to be mocked and struck - for your sins. A crown of long thorns was forcibly pushed down upon his head - for your sins. He was bound and beaten with a whip designed to cut and tear out the flesh all the way to the bones and inner organs of His body. The unimaginable pain of this would have been horrific, yet, He endured it - for your sins. In His weakened state from the pain and blood loss, He carried the cross as far as He could toward the place of His crucifixion. He was then nailed, hands and feet, to that tree - for your sins. At any point in all of this Jesus could have called thousands of Angels to come set Him free - …do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53) Yet, He chose to die in your place as payment for your very own crimes of breaking God’s Law.

Why would He do all of this? God says in the Bible says that - Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (Matthew 15:13). He loves you so much that He laid down His life so that you would never need to die for your own sins. He took your sins to the cross and the grave with Him. However, it is your choice as to whether or not you will actually accept His payment for your sins. By His sacrifice, He is able to cast your sins away as far as the east is from the west. Yet, you must admit to God that you have sinned and ask His forgiveness. You must determine in your heart to turn away from your sinful thoughts and actions in repentance, even the secret ones, asking His forgiveness. Believe in your heart that the Lord Jesus died for your sins on the cross and was raised from the dead to sit at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven. Call upon His name as your personal Savior. Don’t keep it a secret. If you truly trust Jesus, tell people and do not be ashamed of Him for - If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man (Jesus) will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels (Luke 9:26).

God says - "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced (Romans 10:9-11)."

Sin placed you on a path toward Hell. Delaying or flat out refusing to accept Jesus as your Savior leaves you one missed heartbeat away from never again having the choice of a future life in Heaven - for a forever living death in Hell is what you have already chosen. Jesus stands at the door of your heart and he knocks but he will never beat the door down. It will always be your choice whether or not to open that door and let Him in. Choose now to open that door. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:20-21).

So, is it possible to be a good enough person to go to Heaven? No. By nature, we are born sinners. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5). But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We are only made right by the righteous blood of Jesus Christ who died for our sins. Heaven awaits all who place their trust in only Him as their Lord and risen Savior.

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For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24).

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:1-10).

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