That may not be the title that many of us want to hear but it’s the truth. Almost all of us as human beings have this longing to be good enough (or at least to look good enough) but what does the Bible say? Truth is that you are not good enough and will never be good enough but many people don’t like this truth. I am not talking about the fact that your not good enough for people to treat you like you should be treated, I am not talking about how your not good enough to fulfill your dreams, I am saying you are not and will never be good enough to enter heaven based on your merit! Now with that being said even many Christians don’t like this truth!
According to a George Barna poll, “about 63 percent of Americans contend that if a person is good enough, he will earn his way into Heaven. A third of born again Christians accept this notion!” (From Bob Russell, “Do All Roads Lead to Heaven?” The Lookout [8/5/01]
The statistic that I just showed above is alarming especially for Christians. The reason this is alarming is because it shows a misunderstanding in Christendom about how we are saved. The truth is that there are many people living with a mindset focused on LAW and not GRACE! Law says that you have to follow a set of rules to obtain salvation (which most other religions are law based.) Now the problem with this mindset is what the Bible says about living under the LAW. James 2:10 says this “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
That verse in James tells us about living under the LAW. Living under the LAW goes by a simple set of rules “Keep all of the commandments; escape the penalty of hell. Break even one of the commandments; suffer the penalty of Hell.” Now that the LAW rules are set in place for us from the book of James the other bad news is the fact that Romans 3:23 says this “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So that means that if we were to live based on the LAW that all of us have broken a commandment and if we have broken one commandment then we are guilty of all of it and we will suffer the penalty for that.
Now that the bad news is over the good news is that there is another way! The only way that we can start on a path towards this new way is to learn that we are not good enough and never will be. The only way we can enter into eternity with God is through GRACE! Now this system of GRACE goes by a different set of rules, which are “Keep all the commandments of the law, but suffer the penalty of hell. Break the commandments of the law, but escape the penalty of hell.”
Now at first glance that doesn’t seem fair and that’s because it isn’t! Many times in the world we live in today we love to think of things in terms of what is Fair and rightfully so, but truthfully when it comes to God we don’t want him to be fair! We want God to be gracious towards us!
Grace is literally the opposite of fair! You see if you look at the rules of Grace the first line applies to Jesus he kept all the commandments yet suffered the penalty that was equivalent to eternity in Hell when He died on the cross. Those of us who believe, repent, confess and are baptized apply to the second line, which says you broke the commandments yet you get to escape the penalty of hell! Grace is literally the opposite of the LAW, so stop trying to be good enough and trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ!
So now the question becomes how are you going to try to get into heaven? Are you going to try to be good enough by following a set of rules or are you going to get to heaven and point to Jesus? The truth is none of us can earn enough points to get to heaven; we can only be let in to heaven on the basis of the points that Jesus gives us by his work on the cross! Here is one last verse to prove the Bible’s point and my point from 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

(For more articles written By: Pastor Josh Cummins check out his blog joshuacummins.com, for sermons preached by Josh check out http://www.revivegc.com)

(For more on grace check out a book called 13 Lessons on Grace By: Dr. Jack Cottrell)