Articles
Are You A 'Good Person'?
It is common to hear today, in discussions of religious or spiritual topics, someone declaring their belief that “good people” will go to heaven. It may even be put in the form of a question: “Don’t you think good people will go to heaven?” What is implied in the declaration or even in the question is that the individual declaring this or asking this question is one of the “good people” who will go to heaven. Of all the times I have ever heard someone say this or ask this, not one Bible passage has ever been offered as proof, exposing this as merely wishful thinking.
So, how do we get to this idea that being “good” will get us into heaven? And what, exactly, does it mean to be “good”? The answers to those questions will only further demonstrate that this is not a Bible teaching, but rather nothing more than wishful thinking. Friends and brethren, wishful thinking will not get us into heaven, no matter how popular the wish may be. If it is heaven where we truly seek to be in eternity, and if God is the one who determines who enters in, then it is necessary to know what God says about it, right? Let us set aside our wishful thinking for a few minutes and consider what He has said, and then let us accept and do that.
It cannot be determined where and when the idea of “all good people go to heaven” originated, but it is certainly a popular idea. According to one poll, 85% of people who believe in heaven say they will go. A 2021 Pew Research poll showed 39% of all respondents said that people who do not believe in God can go to heaven, and there wasn’t even a prerequisite for being called “good”! That same poll found that among those who identify as “Christian,” 43% believe one can get to heaven even though they do not believe in Jesus as the Christ and the world’s only Savior. What this poll actually reveals is that precious few people who identify as “Christian” really know what that term means or requires of us.
But to the question of “Who is ‘good’?” This would require us to first define what we mean when we use the term “good,” and it is there we find a wide range of opinion. You might think of someone who is “good” is a man who loves his wife and kids and doesn’t abuse them in any way, financially supports them, pays his taxes, hasn’t robbed a bank, and hasn’t murdered anyone. But the definition will inevitably vary from person to person, and therein lies the problem: We are defining a term and, thus, the qualification for one’s ability to enter into heaven, rather than God. We are setting the terms of qualification for an eternal reward, and we can’t even grasp the meaning of “eternal”!
The reality is — according to God — no one is “good.” Not according to God, anyway — and He would know. God does not look at merely our outward deeds or outward appearances, but looks on the heart of every man (1 Sam. 16:7; Psa. 44:21), and uses that as the measure of who we truly are (Prov. 27:19). With that said, consider just a couple of passages:
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” (Eccl. 7:20).
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
And in case we really don’t know, sin is not “good.” In fact, God tells us what sin is [“sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4)], and its punishment [“the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23)]. As a point of clarification, the “death” noted here is a spiritual separation from God, and not a literal, physical death. [See Isaiah 59:1, 2.] But the point should not be overlooked here: No one can truly be called “good” because all of us have sinned; all of us have transgressed God’s law.
But that would explain what we find when we read of God looking down at mankind and noting, “There is none who does good…There is none who does good, no, not one” (Psa. 14:1, 3). If God, who will “judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained” [Christ] (Acts 17:31), then any claim of being “good” is invalid, and any idea that our “good” will get us into heaven is revealed to be a false hope and, again, merely wishful thinking. I am not “good,” you are not “good,” and no one on earth is “good.” Even if being “a good person” got us into heaven, we would all fail to achieve that, since none of us is truly “good.”
I am reminded of a California utility company’s motto from some 30 years ago: ‘Good enough’ isn’t. I have never forgot that, because its true message was that they were not going to settle for ‘good enough,’ but would seek to excel. In much the same way, I am afraid we have settled for “good” as ‘good enough,’ when what we should be striving for is excellence. Rather than being content with ‘good,’ we should be striving to be called righteous by God, because the righteous are those who will enter into heaven. God says so!
Jesus plainly said, in giving an illustration of the final judgment, that it would be “the righteous” who would enter “into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). But who are “the righteous”? Let us not go back to the thinking that they are those who do “good” things, for we have already noted that we still are faced with the reality we have all done a bunch of “not good” things God calls sin. Our “goodness” cannot outweigh, much less eliminate or erase, our sins. A man trying to cleanse himself of his own sins would be like a mud-covered man trying to clean himself; it’s not going to happen. We need an outside source of cleansing!
And that is where the grace of God comes into play, and with it, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Though we do not have the ability to cleanse ourselves of the stain of sin, God has provided the means and, if we are willing to accept His terms, that cleansing power can be applied to us. We can “become the righteousness of God” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21), because Christ offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins and it is by His blood we can be cleansed and be called “righteous” by God. Yes, we who were all not “good” have the opportunity to be called “good” by God; and not just “good,” but righteous.
That is the truly amazing thing about God’s grace and His plan for the salvation of mankind — that those who had transgressed His will and who were stained by sin [all men] could be seen by God as completely clean and free of sin. God has promised, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12. Amazing!
God’s word tells us it is “the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26), and it is not a ‘righteousness’ of our own definition or creation, but a righteousness “which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil. 3:9). It is not a righteousness based on deeds, but a righteousness accounted to us when we have faith that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God. It is a conviction that we must continue to live “soberly, righteously, and godly” lives (Titus 2:12), because “He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7). It is not a matter of a one-time confession of faith, but a life lived in faith to the very end.
So, are you a ‘good person’? No, and neither am I, on our own. But with faith in Jesus Christ, you and I can be called “righteous” — by God! — Steven Harper
