Great question. Your cousin's question is really a question of being good enough for WHAT? I think he means being good enough to meet God or to go to heaven. Millions of people have debated this question for years and years. And the result has been that many people believe as he does: Good people go to heaven. We are "good" enough based on what we do (e.g. donating money, helping the poor). The logic goes something like:
There is a good God in a good placed reserved for good people. This God goes by many names. He is behind all major religions. Therefore, all major and possibly minor, religions provide a legitimate path to God and, therefore, heaven. Whether you make it to this good place is, of course, determined by whether you are good. Each religion has its own criteria of good. But what they all have in common is that men and women must do certain things, and not do certain thing, in order to assure themselves a spot in this good place with a good God. After all...
1. It is fair. If you do well in school, you move to the next grade. If you do well in tryouts, you make the team. Being rewarded for your efforts is part of our human experience, so it makes sense that perhaps this idea came from God. After all, the religious books of the world (The Bible, Koran and even the Book of Mormon) tell of God’s eagerness to reward good behavior in this life. So it makes sense that if you do enough good in this life, you should go to heaven.
2. There is a good god. If there is a good God, and if dwells in a good place, then it makes sense that God would fill heaven with good people. Good God + Good people = Good place.
3. It keeps everyone on his or her best behavior. If good people get to go to heaven, then you and I should try to be good. This is good for law and order and makes a healthy society.
4. It makes all religions equal. Since there is a God behind ALL religions, as long as you are good –you get to go to heaven.
This makes sense right? Actually, NO, it doesn't. Once you get past the emotional appeal, the “good people go to heaven” has some MAJOR problems.
If God is good, why didn’t he do a better job of telling us what his expectations are, so we don’t have to live our whole lives wondering where we stand? If good people go to heaven, a good God should have communicated that directly to us. Instead we have all sorts of religions (& their leaders) telling us all sorts of different ways to get to heaven. But all religions aren’t the same. The Koran is very different than the Bible. Mohammed /Buddha/Krishna/Gandhi – they have different messages. As open-minded as you might try to be, everyone can’t be right. In order for our theory to work, we need rules the reflect God’s standards rather than the standards of these religious leaders. BUT how do we know what God’s standards are?
2. This line of thinking also makes you wonder how good God really is.
If you were an employer, you wouldn’t withhold a job description from your employees and then evaluate them by a standard they never had the opportunity to see. You would refuse to work at that company. If your teacher did this, you would drop the class. You’d complain to the principal. You’d leave the school, because let’s face: “be good” is not only impractical but also unfair.
3. Your conscience is not enough.
You say, “But wait, maybe God HAS given us a standard. It’s called the conscience. Isn’t there a built-in sense of right and wrong inside all of us? Doesn’t everyone know that it’s wrong to steal, kill, and lie?” And the answer is yes. There is a general sense of morality that resides in all of us and I believe that God designed it. If people made it up, it’s really hard to explain how people of every nation throughout recorded history have continued to arrive at similar conclusions regarding right and wrong; fair and unfair. BUT what the conscience cannot do is give you direction in terms of how good you have to be to go to heaven.
Think about it. That’s where religion takes over. If your conscience had the power to tell you where you stand with God, there would be no need for religion. We would know exactly where you stand. But we don’t. That’s exactly my point. It’s hard to find even two people (w/ two consciences) that are on the same page regarding what good is, let alone how much good we must be to make to heaven.
4. The Bible (or other religion texts) can't help you get into heaven.
You say: “Ok, let’s assume ‘be good’ is not as helpful as I once thought. So I’ll follow a set of religious rules. I’ll read The Bible and do what it says in there. Or I’ll go to church and listen to what they tell me.” The problem here is if you look at the Bible for a list of things to ensure your place in heaven, the standard is way too high. The Bible actually has 248 commands and 365 prohibitions, making 613 rules in total. Can you imagine trying to even read through all the rules, let alone try to follow every single one to ensure your place in heaven? I’m not arguing the Bible is correct, I’m just saying the Bible offers no help in our quest to find a magic list of being good enough to go to heaven.
5. You may just run out of time.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume you're going to try to follow a set of rules. Even if that were the case, you are still left with where you stand at any given time. When you die, what percentage of your overall deeds are required to be ‘good’? 70%? 80%? 51%? Let’s assume that God is really laid back and that only 10% of your deeds need to be good to get you into heaven. Even then, you could find yourself one good work away from the passing grade. Can you imagine that? Because you didn’t help that old granny cross the street, you could miss out on heaven and go to the ‘other place’? Or what if God is a really hard marker: 90% of your deeds need to be good to secure a place up there. Then most of us would probably not make that cut. Heaven would probably be pretty empty. Or have you considered what if you simply run out of time to perform your good deeds? Think about it. You could be destined to be the next Bono, but you walk out these doors, and a car hits you. Then all those wonderful, good acts you were going to do… well, tough luck. Do you see why religions of the world and most people cling to one form of this view or another? It’s because there aren’t good options out there. What else can you believe? If good people don’t go, who does?
6. Everyone does not go to heaven.
First, that’s not fair. It means whatever you do in this life doesn’t matter. You could do whatever you want, and you’d be there. Second, it means most of the major religions in the world have misled hundreds of generations because they don’t believe this. Lastly, if everyone’s going to make it, why doesn’t God just tell us?
The Alternative: Jesus
As you can see, the "good people go to heaven" view is actually full of many holes. So what is the alternative? The alternative is the Gospel. The Gospel teaches us that good people DON’T go to heaven (Jesus actually taught the best in the culture were not good enough). WHY? Because there is really no such thing as a "good" person; we are all sinners and therefore bad people. So what we need is forgiveness of our sins and not fairness.
Do you really want God to give you what’s fair and nothing more? If you believe that only good people go to heaven, I think the only honest answer to that question is, “I don’t know.” Why? Because none of us knows what we deserve! We think we know what’s fair, but I am convinced when people complain about something NOT being fair, it is almost always an excuse for the fact they are NOT getting something they want.
This is where Christianity is really different than other faith systems. The God of Christianity never claims to be fair. He claims to be forgiving. Romans 5:8 says:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In other words, while we were treating God and others unfairly, God decided to forgive us and pay for our sins himself. Jesus lived the GOOD life I could never live. And Jesus died the UNFAIR death I should have died. I get what Jesus deserved; Jesus gets what I deserve. Jesus opted for forgiveness rather than fairness.
So friend, read this answer carefully, pray for your cousin and explain it to him. He may not understand it at first, but it is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). And be sure to live this out. Treat people (including your cousin) as God has treated you - with grace, forgiveness and love.
[Answered by Pastor HM, who is glad God opened my eyes and made me realize I'm really not a good person, but rather just a prideful, sinful one]
