HOW GOOD IS GOOD ENOUGH?

You and I are each going to die and it's only a matter of time, but the real question is, what happens next? Here are three common views to choose from:

1. Nothing - There are those who feel that there is no God, and therefore, no life after death. The thing we all must do when choosing whether or not to believe in God is to look around and pick the belief that makes the most sense in light of the reality we see in our world. Personally, I think this thought process of denying a god strongly contradicts the incredibly intricate and complex world that we live in. Whether the world was created in seven literal days or over thousands of years, it seems obvious to me that the world was created by someone. Some higher being set the foundations of the world in motion and governs its existence today. Just because we don't fully understand God and maybe have problems with the way he runs things doesn't make it right to retaliate and deny his existence. Doing this gets us nowhere. Adhering to a belief that nothing happens when we die is making the biggest gamble ever known to man. What happens if you're wrong? This is the least common of the three views.

2. Reincarnation - There are a large number of people around the world who believe man, upon death, is reborn back into this world to right the things they did wrong in the previous life. When a person finally achieves perfection, they enter nirvana, a stage of ultimate self actualization and bliss. The problem with this belief is that it's impossible to know where you went wrong the first time around and so you are left with the pressure of having to play the perfect game and execute the perfect routine on your very first try. For most of us, it takes only about .5 seconds to blow something important when the pressure's on which makes this idea of living a perfect life utterly impossible. This is the second most common view.

3. The Scale Model - This view is extremely popular in America and is held by many who would call themselves Christian. I think virtually all of us would agree that every person has inside them a great capacity to do both good and evil. This dichotomy of the human soul is what drives the continual battle of right and wrong that we witness everyday in our world. On top of all this, most people in America also believe in a god that will one day judge us for how we have lived. We believe that God will weigh our good and our bad and admit us to either heaven or hell based on our motives and actions. This way of thinking puts most of us in great position because, at least generally speaking, we're all really good and nice people. We do the right thing most of the time and usually choose to not do the wrong thing when we have the option or feel like doing it.

One problem with this set up though is that we will never truly know how the scales are weighing. Most of our actions are good, sure, but what if God counts our thoughts too? There's no way of knowing how we stand and now things start to get a little scary. But that's not the worst of it. The biggest problem with thinking about God in this way is that it makes Him out to be incredibly unjust and wicked. Let me explain. Is it right for a man who commits rape and murder to be let off scot-free because all things considered he's a great guy? Or to a lesser extent, is it just, right, or fair in any way for a young kid who steals to not be punished for his actions? Justice just doesn't work like that. Neither can a perfect God. In order for God to be righteous, loving, just, and fair like we would want any god to be, he has to punish man for the things he does wrong. This means that every single one of us, when The Great Judge considers our scales, will be found guilty. So the answer to the question of who's good enough for heaven is that none of us are....at least not on our own.

Romans 5:8 says, "God has showed us his great love by sending Jesus to die for us, even though we are sinners." The beautiful, wonderful thing about Christianity is that even though none of us are good enough for heaven, God has made a way. He sent Jesus to take the death penalty that we deserved. By merely acknowledging our need for forgiveness, the scales will forever be tipped in our favor.