Admission Ticket to Heaven: Being Good?

February 15, 2006

I got the following email in response to my post, Looking For a Way Out:

Hi I found your blog be accident and read about how you wanting to convert your friend Jane to Christianity and ’save’ her. I was really appalled that you didn’t respect her religion or lack their off and believe that because she has a different religion, she wont go to haven. Jesus accepted different religions (Jews or not) and taught that whets important is weather your a good person or not. Do you really think that God would exclude good people, who are full of grace. If you do, then i find that very sad, and I will pray for you. Do you really want to be in a Heaven where everyone is the same?

I thought the person who wrote me the email brought up some good issues—issues a lot of people wrestle with. So, I thought I’d post my response…

Dear [name withheld],

Thanks for your email regarding my recent post on With Purpose. I appreciate your honesty and openness.

In response, I first feel obligated to clarify that I cannot “save” anyone—that’s totally God’s thing. But God can choose to use me in the process. As an analogy, if there is to be a violin concert, what good would it be to go to the concert hall and simply watch a violin sitting on the stage by itself? The violin cannot produce music on its own just like I can’t “save” my friend on my own. However, if a great violin master picks up the violin and plays it, he can communicate his music through the violin. In other words, just as the great musician can use the violin to communicate beautiful music, God may choose to use me to communicate His love for my friend. I just want to be available to be used.

Secondly, I absolutely DO respect the religion my friend chooses to follow. But I still believe it’s wrong. Does that make me an ogre? I don’t think so. We all have differing beliefs about all sorts of things all the time. Just because we don’t believe the same thing doesn’t mean we necessarily are acting disrespectfully toward each other. I offer another (admittedly simple) analogy to explain my point…

I know a fellow parent who, when their child gets hurt, offers a sweet treat to eat. The treat is meant to comfort the child and get them to stop crying. I respect this person a lot and I respect the fact that they can parent any way they choose. But personally, I think using food as a form of comfort is wrong. It’s not sin, of course, but I do believe it doesn’t benefit their child in the long run. (How many times have we heard an adult talk about how they were always given food for comfort as a child and now they cannot break the cycle and are suffering either emotional [like not knowing how to deal effectively with their pain] or physical [like obesity] consequences as a result?) I can communicate WHY I think using food to comfort their child is wrong without being disrespectful. Do I hope they listen to my arguments and stop using food for comfort? Sure. Why? Because I think it’ll benefit the child in the long run. But if they choose to continue using food for comfort, that’s their choice as the parent. I certainly wouldn’t stop being their friend if they don’t do things the way I believe is right.

In the same way, I believe my friend’s religion is wrong (and I know there are plenty of people who believe my religion is wrong). I can respectfully express why I think so and I can hope she changes her mind. Why would I do that? Because I think she will benefit in the long run. But if she chooses not to believe what I believe, will I stop being her friend? Absolutely not. Will I relentlessly badger her forever? No. Will I pray that she changes her mind. Sure.

I’m not exactly sure what you meant when you said, “Jesus accepted different religions (Jews or not)…”

When he was on earth, Jesus made it quite clear He was the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for. He was not so concerned about religious backgrounds as much as He was that individuals recognize and follow Him.

You are absolutely right when you say that Jesus emphasized the importance of being a good person. However, this was not his primary message. His primary message was that He is the Messiah, God’s only Son, sent to die for our sins so that “whoever believes in Him will not die but will live eternally” (John 3:16, emphasis mine). Our good deeds simply flow out of our love for Him; they don’t determine whether or not He loves us nor if He will let us into heaven.

The bottom line is, NONE of us are really “good” by ourselves—not you, not me, not anyone. Sure, we all do good things, but we also all do bad things. So how do we know what’s good enough to get us into heaven? And how do we know what’s bad enough to keep us out? Where’s the line?

Romans 3:10 (and following) says,

“…’No one is good—not even one…’”

And verse 12,

“‘All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one…’”

And verse 20,

“For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands…”

And verses 21 to 23,

“But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard…” (New Living Translation, emphasis mine)

Seems pretty clear to me that being “good” isn’t what ensures an eternal reward. If that were the case, we’d all be doomed from the get-go according to the verses above. Thank God He’s made a way for us that’s not dependent on how we behave or on some ambiguous scale weighing our good deeds against our bad.

To your last question, “Do you really want to be in a Heaven where everyone is the same?” I say yes and no. Everyone in heaven will have one thing in common. That is, we will all be there because we recognized God’s grace when He saved us through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Other than that, there will be all kinds of people from different “tribes, nations and tongues.” In my mind, it’s the perfect scenario–we’ll all be totally equal in God’s (and each other’s) eyes and at the same time, we’ll be genuinely able to celebrate and enjoy our differences.

If heaven were a place where everyone got in based on what and how many good deeds they performed on earth, wouldn’t we be constantly comparing ourselves to each other? We’d either be one of the “best do-gooders” who entered heaven with flying colors, one of the “worst do-gooders” who entered heaven by the skin of our teeth or some “medium do-gooder” falling somewhere in between. And who decides what category we fall in? God? Well then, does He give preferential treatment to the “best do-gooders”? And what if I’m a “worst do-gooder” and I don’t agree with His judgment? Do I just have to suck it up and live with less-than equal treatment for all of eternity? Will I really be happy then? Doesn’t sound like heaven to me. In fact, unless I’m missing something, it just sounds like a repeat of life here on earth.

Category: Deep Thoughts

Comments

8 Responses to “Admission Ticket to Heaven: Being Good?”

  1. Angi
    February 16th, 2006 @ 11:39 am

    Very well said.

  2. Andrea
    February 16th, 2006 @ 3:47 pm

    ditto

  3. Sara
    February 16th, 2006 @ 6:40 pm

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. I keep trying to find a way to explain all of that to a friend who is a Unitarian and I just didn’t have the words. Thank you for providing them.

  4. Laur
    February 17th, 2006 @ 12:43 am

    nicely put. :)
    another thought: your reader mentioned that she found it sad that you might believe people of other religions go to hell. i hear this a lot in college, and i think it’s important for us to remember that even if we don’t like something that’s true, that doesn’t change it’s truthfulness. because even the hearts that are being sanctified aren’t yet fully aligned to God’s heart, we don’t like some things that He likes. but the problem is ours, not His. our theology should be subjected to Scripture, not to our own sense of good taste.

    just a little thought to add to the mix. :)

  5. Julie
    February 17th, 2006 @ 2:16 pm

    Beautifully explained. As my husband explained one day about people being generally “good, decent, tax-paying” folks, ask them this: would anyone want their every thought and word projected on a movie screen for all to see? Wouldn’t we climb under a rock and never come out?

    Also, anyone who has children sees that the heart is deceitfully wicked. We love our precious little ones, who are made in the image of God, but sin has ruined us and broken our relationship with Him. Did I teach my son to lie to me? Did I teach him how to hit his brother? I don’t lie or hit people when I’m mad, but he does. Where did he learn that? It’s part of his sin nature he was born with. The argument that we’re all “good” people just doesn’t fly with me.

  6. Maiju
    February 21st, 2006 @ 10:56 am

    Thnak you Amy!

  7. Kara Deal
    March 6th, 2006 @ 5:10 pm

    Amen. May God continue to be glorified in you and your work! This blog is a ministry. It has already ministered to my heart many times today. Did you ever recieve a response from the reader? Just wondering. keep us up to date!

  8. Amy
    March 8th, 2006 @ 2:26 pm

    Hey Kara, no, I never heard back from her.

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