1 Timothy 4:8 NIV
[8] For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Today maybe you’re in college. Somewhere between the ages of 18 and 24. But what about Tomorrow?
You graduate. You get a job. You get married. You have children. You go through a few more jobs. You buy a house. Okay, THEN what?
You go to soccer games for your kids. You try to be a good parent and spouse. You watch your children go to the prom. Even though Yesterday they were wearing diapers. You do and say the things your parents did and said, even though you vowed you never would.
You have a mid-life crisis or two. Your children graduate from college. You become a grandparent. Someone calls you grandma or grandpa. You live out your life in leisure, drawing income from a retirement fund. You take walks in the morning. You work in the garden. You read the newspaper. You watch TV. You talk to your children and grandchildren on the phone. You travel. Okay, THEN what?
Well, then, someday, you die. If you are fortunate, you live a relatively long life. Seventy to 90 years. If you don’t get taken away prematurely by cancer or a car accident. But always, eventually, you die. Death is the Tomorrow that awaits us all, the inevitable Then that none of us can escape.
But is that it? Is there anything more?
Someday you’ll be just a corpse. They’ll bury your body in the ground. Or burn your body and put your ashes in an urn. The big question is, Will I cease after that? Will there still be a conscious ME somewhere? Is there really life after death?
In truth, we probably all hope there is something that comes after. Maybe in the smallest recesses of our minds, we are planning on it.
What are we planning on? Life after death of some sort. Some call it paradise. Some call it heaven. Some also talk of hell.
Another thought that many people possess throughout life, often subconsciously, is: I’m a basically good person. Therefore, I will get to go to heaven someday.
Is that how it works?
Many people think they are “good enough” for heaven. It’s an assumption we make. If we haven’t robbed a bank, or murdered anyone, or cheated on our taxes, we think we’re just the kind of folk God is looking for to populate his home. By golly, we are good enough.
At heaven’s box office, we bought our ticket by being basically good people all throughout our lives.
But what if that thinking is incorrect? THEN what? What a thing to have been wrong about! What a misfire!
If you think you’re good enough for heaven, there are two things to consider:
1- If heaven is a place of perfection, how can anyone be good enough?
Most of us would say we have a “skeleton in the closet.” At least one. Something we hope no one ever finds out about us. A mistake in our past. A poor decision. A moment of weakness or stupidity that we’d rather not think about.
That’s extreme. But there are many other more common things we don’t really want others to know or notice about us. It might be the “little white lies” we tell. Or how we talk behind someone’s back. Or how we copy other people’s homework. Or the unkind words we say to people. Or the unkind thoughts we have about people.
Much more than a one-time regrettable event, our lives, if we closely scrutinize them, show a pattern of wrongdoing. We often don’t do what we believe to be right. And we often do what we believe is wrong.
A. All of us, even people whom we would call basically good, are also basically selfish and basically very imperfect.
B. Everything we do is seen by God.
C. So that means there’s no fooling him. He’s perfectly aware of all the good we haven’t done (and yet could have), as well as all the bad we’ve done. He even knows all of our thoughts and all of our motives.
Here’s the second thing to consider if we think we’re “good enough” for heaven:
Revelation 21:27 NIV
[ 27] “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful…”
2- Is it possible to be a basically good person and still have rejected God?
Consider a guy named Jim. He’s a “good” person. He was ethical in his job. He never stole even a paper clip. He was a faithful father and husband. He provided for his children. He made sacrifices for them and for his wife (whom he never cheated on). He even gave money to many charities throughout his life.
But Jim, though good in some sense, never “let God in.” Many times in his life, Jim sensed God’s desire to come into his life. It was as if God were knocking on the door of Jim’s heart. But Jim never was open to seek God. He always came up with some excuse not to. Ironically, one of the recurring excuses was, I’ve been a good person all my life. I will go to heaven.
Luke 18:19 NIV
[19] “…No one is good — except God alone.”
Jim wanted to go to heaven. Everyone does. But in reality, Jim didn’t want to know God. And he didn’t stop to analyze the huge implications of that decision (the decision to keep God out).
Think about it. Heaven is God’s home. If Jim didn’t want to know God during his life on Earth, why would Jim want to know God in an afterlife? In other words, what Jim didn’t calculate is how much he would LOATHE heaven.
Heaven is a place where God is very present. It’s likely that every aspect of heaven will remind one of God, constantly. What a horrible place for Jim!
Jim always assumed heaven would be a place of ultimate comfort. But he never considered how ultimately uncomfortable it would be for him since he didn’t want to know God or have a relationship with God. For Jim, heaven would not be heaven, but rather a type of hell.
Would you let someone into your home even if you knew they didn’t want to have anything to do with you? If you knew that everywhere they turned, they’d be reminded of you? Many people are like Jim. They want heaven, but they don’t want God. And they don’t realize that, under those circumstances, heaven would be an awful place to be.
Maybe the truth of the matter is that heaven is for people who know they’re not good enough to be there — but who nonetheless want to be there solely because God is there. They want to know God and be with him forever. The life-after-death prize isn’t heaven, but rather its Primary Occupant.
John 1:1-5 NIV
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was with God in the beginning. [3] Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. [4] In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:14 NIV
[14] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 5:24-25 NIV
[24] “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. [25] Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
John 5:28-29 NIV
[28] “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice [29] and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
From an Unworthy servant,
Chris Chloupek
Lead Evangelist