Unable To Do It Ourselves

And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Matthew 19:16

Ask any number of people how to get to Heaven and the answers will be varied. Some would say to live a good life….keep the ten commandments. Here are some thoughts I have heard from people. Join a church, be baptized, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, live in such a way that your good outweighs your sin, pray, give your money to a church, read your Bible, sacrifice things in your life. We are a society of self sufficiency. We see life as pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and working toward success. It is in our nature to live independent of God and His ways.

But what is wrong with thinking we can do something good enough to earn a place in Heaven? The premise is wrong! For one, a person’s view of God is such that they think He is saying, “Heaven is a wonderful place and you must do something to impress me enough to let you come here.” They think they must EARN a place there. By hard work and good deeds they hope they have given God enough reason to let them in.

Another problem is they have a wrong view of themselves. They think they are capable of doing enough to get them into Heaven. That maybe if they haven’t lived a horribly sinful life or committed a heinous crime they stand a good chance of getting in on their own merit. They may see the good life of an individual and assume those actions are what make Heaven a possibility for them. They feel they have tried their best and surely that will be good enough for God.
Allow me to address the first thought pattern. God offers Heaven as a free gift! He knows we could not produce enough good in our life to obtain it for ourselves. The Bible says we are saved by grace, not by works, because if it were by works we would spend eternity bragging on ourselves. It also says that all our righteousness (good deeds) are like filthy rags. No one will be in Heaven because of their own goodness. Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the price for our way to Heaven. If it could be earned, He would not have come in the first place.

Secondly, the idea that my good cancels out my sin is like saying, “All the times I drove at the speed limit should impress the judge enough to do away with my speeding ticket.” Or “All the times I have paid for items should cause the policeman to simply ignore the one time I shoplift.” How absurd! If this world does not operate on such a premise, what makes us think God does?
Yes, there is a Heaven and yes there is a way to get there. It is through Jesus.

Father, if it were up to any one of us to get ourselves to Heaven we would fail. It is not a matter of our good versus our bad. It is a matter of accepting Your offer of salvation as a free gift. Once that is done, may we live out the rest of our days here for Your honor and glory. Amen.