Good Isn’t Good Enough

Good Isn’t Good Enough


All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Romans 3:12 New International Version


I had a strange conversation with a coworker. She came to my desk to tell me that she is a good person. I replied, “That’s good.”
She said, “Good people get into heaven. That’s where I am going because I deserve it.”
“What makes you think that being good is good enough?”
“All the good stuff I do for others earns that for me. I have earned it by now,” she said.
“Well, how do you know you have done enough to earn it?” I said. “Isn’t it possible that you have the amount per deed incorrect? And who set the value of each deed anyhow?”
After a long pause I asked her, “Do you own heaven?”
“No . . . what does that have to do with anything?”
I said, “Well, think of it this way. If your son came home with a friend and asked if the boy could stay for awhile you would normally say yes. Why? Because the other person was brought to you by your son. What if a complete stranger came and asked the same question, would you let him or her stay at your house?”
She said, “No.”
I told her that is the same way with God. He lets people in that come with His son. If you don’t know God’s son, how do you expect to gain entry?

I am appalled at the mentality of some people. I felt like telling her to think these things through. Don’t serve up some half-baked idea and expect me to bless it. Gee Whiz! Think about it. If we had to earn it, we would do what was necessary, and then our good deeds would fall off after that. Also, if we could earn it, we would be arrogant about our accomplishments. What if some are incapable of earning it? How do those get salvation? The fact is none of us can measure up to God’s expectations. According to the Bible, good isn’t good enough, but that’s the good news. The good news is that it was already earned for us by Jesus as he hung on the cross. Our only option now is to accept that Jesus paid the debt or shun the heavenly admission ticket.

The irony in all this is not necessarily that my friend was acting on faulty information about God. But that some people that are educated believers still try to earn admission into Heaven. We should be doing our good deeds out of gratitude, not to deposit more God dollars into our heavenly accounts.