Am I Good Enough? 

October 30, 2022, Reformation Sunday 

A teacher was testing the children in her Sunday school class to see if they understood how you get to heaven. She asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?”  

“NO!” the children answered. 

“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?” 

Again, the answer was, “NO!” 

Now she was smiling. Hey, they’re getting it, she thought! “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?” she asked. 

Again, they all answered, “NO!” 

She was happy! They got it! “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get into Heaven?” 

A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.” 

Will I get into heaven? That’s a big question! Although we maybe don’t think about it often, our life is too busy! And maybe you say, I know I’ll go to heaven. Because good people go to heaven, and I’m a good person. That means I’m good enough. There are bad people, and who knows what will happen to them!  

There are reasons we think we’re good enough to go to heaven: 

For one thing, we think, Good people should be rewarded. So, since I’m good, I’m going to heaven.  

A second reason we think we’re good enough is, although we all hate judgmental people, we feel like, “I know I’m better than some people. I’m a good person. Not the goodest, but good enough!” 

A third reason we think we’re heaven bound is that God is not bad. God is good! And he would want good people with Him in heaven!  

A fourth reason we think heaven should be a reward for goodness, is that it motivates good behavior. The fear of not going to heaven should help us turn our lives around and turn back to God when we are going down the wrong path. It’s good that pressure to avoid evil exists. 

But there are some problems with the idea that good people go to heaven. First, how can we know we are good enough for heaven? What is the standard, so we know we are good? What is the standard that applies to all generations? You know, today, we think women should be treated equally to men. They should be able to play sports and vote and get the same jobs as men and be the boss or own a company if they want to. But 500 years ago, women were subservient to men. So, if we think the good way to treat women is to give them rights, the men from 500 years ago wouldn’t be good! 

What we think is good can change over time. Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence in 1776. He wrote: “we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” That sounded good to him. Intellectually, that is what he thought. He was just as good as the King of England! But in his gut: he didn’t exactly feel that way or live out that all men are created equal! Jefferson had slaves! It would take a bloody civil war and almost a century to work that out, that all men are created equal means all men, black or white, are created equal! So, is Thomas Jefferson good enough for heaven? I’m sure he thought he was good, but our understanding of what is right and wrong changes over time. We don’t have a fixed standard across the ages of what it means to be good. 

A second problem with the idea that good people go to heaven, is the Bible is not so helpful at telling us what is good enough for heaven. We do have the 10 commandments, but they are from the book of Exodus, and there is not a word about heaven there. The Bible does not say, if you keep the 10 commandments, you will go to heaven. The Old Testament does not say much about the afterlife. It says when you die, you go to Sheol, the place of the dead. 

Now the New Testament talks about heaven a lot. But in the New Testament the apostle Paul says, if you try to work your way to heaven, you are doomed! In Romans 3:28 Paul says, “a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” In Romans 3:23 Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So, Paul says we are justified, not by being good, but by faith. And he says we are not good; instead, we have all sinned and we fall short.” 

So, the Bible does not tell us be good and it will get you to heaven. 

Another problem is we don’t know how good we have to be. We could miss out on heaven by one good deed. If we knew, we would have donated to one more worthy cause or been nice to that person we can’t stand! You might miss out on heaven because of that one time you lost your temper with the customer service agent! We can’t say exactly how much good we have to do or how good we have to be. 

Today is Reformation Sunday. We remember over 500 years ago, when Martin Luther (not Martin Luther King,) Martin Luther, had an issue with the of the Pope for what he did. He was telling people who wondered like we do, am I good enough to go to heaven? The Pope said if you give donations to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica, you will get so many days or years of penance for your sins taken care of. Johann Tetzel, a priest at the time, said, “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” According to him you could get your deceased loved ones who weren’t good enough for heaven and were in a pre-heaven, you could get them into heaven. All you had to do was pay him. Martin Luther objected to that. Martin for many years had thought he was not good enough. Then he read Romans. He realized God loved him and saved him. We are saved by the grace of God and by faith. He wrote his thoughts on a paper that he nailed to a church door. It was like early social media, he posted. Martin Luther didn’t think anyone would notice or care. But his post blew up, everybody noticed, and the Protestant Reformation began!  

We’ve seen there are problems with saying “I am good enough,” because how do I know? And there are problems with paying money and thinking that makes us good with God. But then how can we get to heaven? 

According to Jesus, “No one is good but God alone.” He said that in Mark 10:18. Still, Jesus told his followers to be good and do good. Jesus said in Luke 6:26-27, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Jesus wanted us to be and do good, but not in order to go to heaven. There were religious leaders in Jesus’ time who thought they knew all the rules and laws, and they knew what everybody should do. And you know what Jesus called them? Hypocrites! Jesus told his followers in Luke 6:35-36 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” So, Jesus calls us to something higher. Don’t just be good enough. Do good, and be merciful like God, your Father! And Jesus said, there is a great reward for that. 

Then, on the cross Jesus said to a criminal hanging beside him, “Today you will be with me in paradise!” Jesus is like, “I will see you on the other side.” That criminal knew he wasn’t “good enough.” But he went to heaven with Jesus. 

How do we get to heaven? It’s not according to our opinion of what “good enough” is. There is no set of rules or laws to tell us how to get there. It doesn’t depend on what is considered good now or what was good 500 years ago. Instead, God sent Jesus. Jesus is the way to heaven. God so loved the world, that one day, Jesus showed up, a little baby in a manger. God gave us a who, Jesus, not a to do list. The way to heaven is to put our trust in Him, regardless of what we have done.  

When we stop considering ourselves good enough or not good enough, maybe we will see that God is even better than we imagine. God is not trying to catch us doing wrong. He didn’t send Jesus to condemn the world. Instead, he sent Jesus to save the world.  

We have a high calling, to be like our Father in heaven. We will fall short. But lucky for us, God is good, and we have our sin paid for and wiped away, when we put our trust and faith in Jesus. So, because God sent Jesus, you and I can live with assurance that things are good between us and God. We are enough! 

My challenge for you today is to put your trust in God. Right now, I am going to pray a prayer of commitment. I invite you, let’s pray:  Holy God, thank you for loving me and forgiving me. I’m sorry for my sins. I know the way to true life is to follow you. As much as I know how, I ask you to help me to be in relationship with you. I give my life now to you. Amen.