The #1 Reason Why You Don’t Want All Good People to Go to Heaven

Yes, you read that title right. So many people tell me that they believe good people will go to heaven. As much as I wish this were true, the more I think about this, the more I’m glad it isn’t. There are several more reasons beyond just the one I will mention here, but this is a big topic so I want to address it carefully. Here’s the #1 reason why you don’t want all good people to go to heaven.

What Is “Good”?

When we say that we believe all good people will go to heaven, our criteria is incredibly vague. Imagine a biology professor saying “for your final, which is worth 80% of your grade, I want you to write a good paper.” If this was all the direction he gave you, I bet you’d be pretty upset and anxious.

So what is “good”?

If we sat down and you wrote out important qualifications to define a good person, I can bet your definition of a good person looks a lot like yourself. In my list of what defines a good person, I’d probably include the following:

• Never kills others
• Doesn’t steal
• Never rapes others
• Doesn’t cheat on tests
• Doesn’t curse

I’m sure there are lots of other things I’d include, but these are just a few I thought of, and I’m sure your list might look similar. You may be thinking “Now hold on, I curse and I sometimes cheat, but everyone does. That doesn’t make me bad.”

Are we so prideful that we can’t admit we aren’t good enough on our own?

Not in my mind. I find cursing crude, though I won’t go out of my way to convince you not to curse, I do think it’s wrong. I also think that those who curse are also just being rude to others.

My point here is that my “good” is different than yours.

We Are All Biased

Now, there’s a lot of things I didn’t include on my list like:

• Doesn’t lie
• Doesn’t ignore the needs of others
• Always makes time for those in need
• Is courteous to others on the road

Why didn’t I include these? Well, because I don’t always do them. But I’m a good person, right?

Well, am I really good? Are you really good? We’d all like to believe we are good. And that’s the problem. That guy or gal you hate and can’t stand, I bet you they’d consider themselves good as well too.

We all justify our actions. We all like to believe we are good. And, we define good by ourselves, not by what is truly good.

You might say, “Well, I might do some things wrong, but at least I don’t rape others.”

Okay, fair, but I bet you a rapist might say “Yes, I’ve raped a few women and children, but at least I didn’t kill them!” The comparison game doesn’t really work here. Just because you are better than others, doesn’t mean you are good.

The “Good” Test

If you think you are a good person, I can prove you aren’t through your answer to this question: How would you feel if your mom could read every thought you’ve ever had? Would you feel proud of yourself? Embarrassed? Ashamed?

If you have a hard time answering that question, this one might help: How would you feel if all of your thoughts were broadcasted audibly to the people around you and posted online?

I’d like to think I’m good, but like you, I also think terrible things all the time. True, we might not act on all these terrible thoughts, but we still think them, and if we knew we could get away with anything, we’d probably act on these thoughts a lot more. Just because you don’t act on these thoughts, doesn’t mean you are good. It means you have some degree of self-control. But these thoughts still came from you.

We do wrong things all the time. We lie, cheat, steal, drive over the speed limit,

How Do We Define Good?

If you were to define what it meant to do good, you’d form a definition that favors you, which would ultimately mean only you could go to heaven.

Am I really good? Are you really good? We’d all like to believe we are good. And that’s the problem.

Don’t get me wrong, the church also does this. Many churches say homosexuality is the devil, yet they don’t seem to care about how pride and greed are also big sins. They ignore the fact that many of them have wealth that can save lives all around the world but instead they hoard it all and give none of it away.

My point is that they might gloss over their own wrongdoing and focus on something else because they don’t struggle with that sin.

So, if you or I can’t define who a good person is, then how do we?

Are You Good Enough to Go to Heaven?

What about this for a list of good things a good person should do?

• Don’t lie
• Don’t steal
• Do not commit adultery
• Do not murder
• Don’t take advantage of others
• Don’t cause strife amongst others
• Go out of your way to love others
• Give generously to help others
• Follow the law

Seems like a pretty good list, but how many of those have you kept perfectly? I only pass on two of the nine. That’s less than 20%. And I’m guessing your score is similar to mine.

Now, you might be thinking, I might’ve broken many of those, but not all that often. For example, I don’t steal . . . much. But I do sometimes skip paying for parking at certain places when I know I can get away with it. I sometimes eat grapes in the store so I don’t have to pay for the full weight. I sometimes use my parent’s phone number to get 10 cents off my gas.

Typically, I don’t really steal, just these small things.

In a way though, a murderer could use this same excuse. He could say “You know, I don’t kill all that often. I only kill .01% of all the people I see. And I only kill older people who are going to die in a few years anyway.”

That’s an extreme example, but the logic is the same.

Even if you’ve held a perfect driving record for twenty years, if you drive seven miles over the speed limit for ten seconds you still deserve that speeding ticket. Once you break the law, you are a lawbreaker.

The #1 Reason Why You Don’t Want All Good People to Go to Heaven

The number one reason why is because if only good people went to heaven, then no one would go to heaven. If being good was the determining factor, we’d all get hell.

But how could a loving God send us to hell?

Well, I don’t believe God wants us to go to hell. He created us initially to be in perfection with him for an eternity in the Garden of Eden, but we chose to go our own way and separated ourselves from God. Even though we chose it, God still fights to bring us back to him.

He knew he was the only one good enough to deserve eternity with him, so he came down and lived that perfect life. This way, just as all of humanity was separated from God because of one man’s sins, so all of humanity can be restored to God because of one man’s righteous life.

Doesn’t that seem too good to be true?

We are too messed up to ever deserve God, but yet God still loves us. So he trades places with us. He dies our death so all we need to do is accept his death on our behalf so we can take the life he earned through his perfect life.

Which would you rather be the case? Would you rather work your entire life trying to be perfect enough to hopefully reach heaven? Or, would you rather be given a free pass into heaven if you simply admit to your sins and ask God to come into your life?

Obviously the latter sounds better. So why do we fight this? Why do we instead hope it’s the other? Are we so prideful that we can’t admit we aren’t good enough on our own?

Why do you think we keep hoping for the latter option rather than the former?

I hope this post made you think and clarified some things for you. Please consider forwarding this post to someone who you think might need it.

 

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If all this is convincing but you still don’t want to turn to God because you can’t trust him. I’d encourage you to read this post: 5 Reasons Why You Can Trust God