One reason good people don’t go to heaven is because there are no “good people”. Don’t get mad at me, Jesus is the one who said it. Jesus said to the rich young ruler who had called Him good, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God” (Luke 18:19 NKJV). Jesus was saying there is only one who is good and that is God. He was asking him are you prepared to recognize Me as God? The young ruler did not see that Jesus was God in the flesh and he went away sad. Those who see themselves as good have a hard time submitting to the righteousness of God. They won’t make it because they still fall short of God’s perfect requirement. God’s Word indicates that falling short even in just one thing is just like falling short in everything. That’s how it is with “perfect”. Anything less is simply not. God don’t grade on a curve, it’s pass or fail. You are either perfect or you are not.
God didn’t give us His Law – the Ten Commandments, because He thought we could keep them and actually be good enough at rule keeping, that we could save ourselves. The Law was to lead us to Christ and to point out that we’ve failed to attain perfection, and thus we are not able to make it to heaven on our own. God’s Law brings indisputable evidence that we need another way to perfection.
Perfection has always been God’s requirement for entry into heaven. God is perfect. He has prepared a place called “Heaven” which is perfect. If God allowed anything or anyone that was not perfect to enter that realm, they would make it imperfect. Jesus preached what I call a “Killer Sermon” in Matthew, chapters five, six and seven. “Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Not only did Jesus command that we be perfect, He said we must be just as perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect. That’s why it’s a killer sermon. Jesus is commanding us to be what is impossible for us to be on our own merit. Jesus is preaching the Law to those who were under the law. Jesus Himself was “under law”. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV). Most of the church is very familiar with the idea that Jesus was ‘born of a woman’, but many don’t understand that Jesus was ‘born under the law’.
Jesus was preaching the hopelessness of attempting to obtain righteous perfection by the law. Jesus was preaching the law so the law could do what it was designed to do and that is kill us. The Letter(LAW) kills, but the Spirit gives Life! The religious Pharisee’s and Scribes had come up with their own “watered down” version of the law. Jesus raised the bar when He said, “that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). This blew the minds of His audience. How could they be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees? Jesus preached law to condemn the proud, to magnify the law, so they could see their need for a Savior.
“Nobody is perfect,” is what we say. God is and so must we be to enter heaven. Notice Jesus said, “be perfect”, not do perfect. We become perfect by being made perfect, not by doing perfect deeds. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect (Hebrews 10:1). There is only one sacrifice that can make men perfect and that is Jesus. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). Notice, He has perfected forever, not will someday. You say, “I’m not perfect, I’m far from it”. That’s true for you and me. We are not perfectly behaved, but we are perfect in our spirits, if we have been born again. God sees you with no flaw, spot, or imperfection, so honor His Word and the finished work of Jesus by saying, “Amen!” He clothes us in the perfection of the Son. You were made perfect by a perfect sacrifice! “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect (Hebrews 12:23 NKJV). You are made perfect in your spirit. Don’t doubt your perfection in Christ. To see yourself as being far from perfect is not humble, but a failure to understand the perfect sacrifice that Jesus has made for you.
The word “Gospel” in the Bible means, “good news or news too good to be true.” The reason the good news is not so good to some is because they think they are pretty good within themselves. They don’t see their need for a savior. There are many that believe that if your good deeds out-weigh your bad deeds, then you’ll go to heaven. Man has come up with schemes to try to tip the proverbial scales in his favor and overcome his “not perfect” status. Being religious, doing good and even sacrificial deeds, giving time and money to good causes – these are some of the ways man tries to get good enough for heaven. But the problem is still the problem. Even “pretty-good-but-not-quite-perfect” is still not perfect. Not perfect is still not perfect, no matter how good we dress it up. It always falls short.
It’s then that the “good news” becomes “great news!” This is how God planned to solve our “I’m not perfect, and I can never get into Heaven” problem. He planned a divine exchange. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV). The perfect and sinless Jesus took our “sinner” status upon Himself, and gave us His “righteous” (or perfect) status in its place. Where did Jesus get the sin? From us. Where do we get righteousness? From Him. Jesus did not become sin by doing sinful deeds and neither do we become righteous by doing righteous deeds. Our sin was imparted to Him, so that His righteousness could be imparted to us. When we place our faith in Him, when we die, we’ll be ushered into His Perfect Heaven, to enjoy perfect fellowship forever with the perfect Jesus. Why? Because I’ve been made perfect by His perfect sacrifice. My sin is gone and I’m “clothed” in the perfection of Jesus Christ.
So true Pastor, and all I can say to that is, Amen!!!