Will Only Good People Go to Heaven?

There is a common misconception in the world that one must be good to get into heaven. This myth is instilled in our minds at a very early age through fairytales and the indoctrination of the religious system in all its various forms. So people grow-up and become adults believing that being good (keeping a moral code like the Ten Commandments) will get you a ticket to heaven.

“After all”, many will say, “I haven’t murdered anyone, or robbed any banks, or committed adultery”.

They believe God is in heaven holding up the “scales of justice” with their good works on one side and bad on the other, and that all will be judged according to which outweighs the other. Few people that I have met and questioned about this (outside of career criminals) believe that they have more bad than good works, therefore, they believe, the scales will certainly weigh in their favor and God will have to admit them into heaven. “But we won’t really know until we get there”, they say.

Ever wondered what the Bible says about all this? The Bible says none will be justified by their good deeds, or by keeping the moral code:

For by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin…and that….there is none righteous, no not one…there is none that doeth good, no not one…for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God…that….all our righteousnesses (good works) are as filthy rags (in God’s sight)

You see, God doesn’t see us the way we see ourselves. He sees our heart the way it really is… deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Even if we believe we haven’t done anything really wrong the Bible says—because of the original man’s (Adam) sin—death passed upon all men….the wages of sin is death.

According to the Bible—where we get the idea of heaven in the first place—it doesn’t matter how good the world says someone is; God sees it differently:
…Verily every man at his best state (behavior) is altogether vanity (worthless).
It isn’t being proposed here that good deeds are not wanted in the world, or will go unrewarded. Nor is it being said that folks can commit sin(s) without consequences. What is being said here is that our deeds/misdeeds aren’t part of the equation for determining our eternal destination, whether it be heaven or hell. It is the work of one man and what we believe about him and whether or not we have trusted in what he did for us that will determine this.
But now, even the righteousness of God without the law is manifested (made known) being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe….whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (an instrument of peace/ reconciliation) through faith (God’s) in his blood (that he shed for us)….therefore it is concluded that a man is justified by faith (Christ’s) without the deeds of the law. That God….hath made him (Christ) to be sin for us, who (Christ) knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The facts:
a.)we are sinners—debtors to God. We owe a debt that no amount of good deeds or abstinence from bad deeds could pay for.

b.) God has provided the payment for this debt through the sacrifice (death) of his Son, Jesus Christ…for our sins…and then resurrected him from the dead….for our justification.

c.) Therefore God is not holding anyone’s sins (debts) against them because he… was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing (charging) their trespasses unto them.

d.) We can know now that we are bound for heaven by simply confessing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior:

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus (believing that he died for your sins), and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved….and….sealed unto the day of redemption..when..the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; so shall we ever be with the Lord.

It isn’t about what we’ve done, it’s about what Jesus Christ has done for us, and whether we have trusted in that and received it as a free gift…it is the gift of God… The Scriptures say he died for ungodly sinners.(Rom. 5:6,8) If you can now see yourself as that (an ungodly sinner) the only thing remaining is to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ..……and thou shalt be saved. Have you ever done this? If not, will you call upon him now, and be assured that you will be in the number who go on that day when he descends from heaven?

Mike Schroeder

All Scripture (bold letters) is taken from the King James Bible. Scriptures are listed as follows in the sequence quoted:

Romans 3:20; 3:10,12;
Isaiah 64:6
Jer. 17:9
Rom. 5:12,14; 6:23
Psalm 39:5
Rom. 3:21,22,25,28;
2 Cor. 5:21
1 Cor. 15:3,4
Romans 4:25
2 Cor. 5:19
Romans 10:9;
Ephesians 4:30;
1 Thessalonians 4:16,17
Ephesians 2:8
Romans 10:13
Acts 16:31