For I say to you, that unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt 5:20
You are standing
before God on Judgment Day. He asks you a question. “Why should I allow you
into Heaven?” What is your answer? Take a second to think about that question.
Most people will say that God should let them into heaven “because they are a
good person.” If that is your answer, you may want to take some more time to
think about it.
Most people who
think that they are good think so because they have their own standard for
goodness. Jesus says unless your righteousness (or goodness) exceeds that of
the scribes and the Pharisees, you are not going to heaven. That may not mean a
lot to us, but the scribes and the Pharisees devoted their whole lives to trying
to be good. They devoted all their time
and energy trying to do the “do’s” and not do the “don’ts”. If you were part of Jesus’s original
audience, His statement would have made your attempt at getting to heaven based
on your own goodness seem futile.
So what or who is
the standard for goodness? Jesus said that “No one is good but One, that is, God.” So the standard for goodness is
not your neighbor, the sickos on the news, or even religious leaders, but the
standard for good is God. Moral perfection is the standard you must meet. Even
our lies, which most people dismiss because we all lie, are enough to damn
us. The Bible tells us that “all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (Rev 20:8)
God is a God of truth, and in Him there is nothing false. Lying goes against
God’s perfect moral character.
Who then can go
to heaven? No one who trusts in their own goodness can go to heaven. If you
want to go to heaven the first thing you have to do is realize that your own
goodness will not get you there. The Good News is that God sent His own Son to Earth.
Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and never sinned. He voluntarily laid down
His own life on the cross to pay for the sins you have committed. The
punishment you deserve for being a liar, a thief, a person filled with lust, or
a person who hates their neighbor was paid for by Jesus on the cross.
God requires that
you believe in Jesus’s work on the cross for you. The trust you once had placed
in your own goodness to get you into heaven needs to be placed in Christ’s
death and resurrection. Believe that the Son of God died in your place to pay
for your sin. Turn from your life of sin. Turn towards God. By this you will enter the kingdom of heaven.
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