Why Can’t I Get To Heaven Through Good Works?
by JACK WELLMAN · Prison Fellowship
I spent a long time in a discussion with a few people this
week discussing how hard it is to satisfy God's commands and do
what He tells us to do to spend eternity with Him.
**Many people believe that they’re a very good person and that
will bring them to heaven but this is actually false and we can be
thankful that it is.
Our good Works
Good works have their place in the life of the Christian. Salvation
is not one of them. James did say “What good is it, my brothers, if
someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith
save him” (James 2:14) in which he was really saying “faith by it-
self, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). We are saved
by faith and not works (Eph 2:8-9) but a faith that does work. In
other words, if someone claims to be a Christian and has no works to
show it, then James would ask “Can that faith save him?” No, because
it’s obviously not genuine, saving faith. Of course I am not saying
that we are saved by works but we are saved for works as Paul wrote
there were “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).
Why Cant I Get To Heaven Through Good Works
How to get to Heaven
The last statistic I read and backed up by people I talk to is that
almost 90% of people believe they’re a good person and believe they
have done more good to go to heaven. If that were true, I ask them
“then why did Jesus have to die on the cross if you could be good
enough to go to heaven on your own?” We could live a million lives
and do good works in each and every one of them and not be deemed
good enough to go to heaven. Good enough is not good enough to God.
We have to be perfect as the Bible says “nothing unclean will ever
enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false”
(Rev 21:27). It’s not about a plan of salvation but about the Man
of Salvation and that is through Jesus Christ alone because there is
absolutely no other way (Acts 4:12). If there were, God would have
revealed it to us in the Bible but it’s not there! If our works
could get us there, then Jesus died for nothing and He most certain-
ly did not suffer and die for no reason.
Who gets us to Heaven?
It’s not so much of how we get to heaven but Who gets us there. It
is only Jesus Christ and His righteousness that must be imputed to
us because remember, nothing imperfect can ever enter heaven (Rev
21:27) so that leaves us with a huge problem because our sins have
separated us from a holy God (Isaiah 59:2). Here’s how God solved
this problem for us and we read about the solution in 2 Corinthians
5:21 which says that it was “For our sake He made Him to be sin who
knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of
God.” It was not for our sake or our work’s sake but for Jesus’ sake
alone. God sees us as having Jesus’ righteousness and that’s what
it takes.
Why works are Useless
You still want to consider that your good enough to go to heaven by
your good works and that your good will outweigh the bad? Listen to
what God says about our works in Isaiah 64:6, “We have all become
like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a pol-
luted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the
wind, take us away.” To anyone who says that they’re a good person,
I say that either you are right and the Bible is wrong or you are
wrong and the Bible is right but both can’t be wrong or both can’t
be right. The truth is that the Word says “None is righteous, no,
not one… no one does good, not even one” (Rom 3:10, 12). It's only
"by grace you have been saved through faith. And this isn't your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one
may boast” (Eph 2:7-8) and believe me, if we could boast, we would.
I am glad that works cannot save us because when would we ever have
enough peace of mind to know how many good works was enough? Could
we die peacefully knowing that we’d done enough? No, there is no
peace of mind in that. God made peace with us through Jesus Christ
and “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).
Conclusion
We are saved by grace through faith and not by works. No amount of
good works could ever get us there. Only a good God Who sent His
perfect Son could get us to heaven and that’s by repentance and
faith. There is no way that a good person will ever make it to
heaven on his or her own but only bad people forgiven by a very
good God.
There is positively no other way to get there. Sadly, hell will be
full of self-proclaimed “good people” who brought their works and
filthy rags to hell with them.
May it never be so with you.**
God expects certain things from those who want to spend
eternity in Heaven with Him. Always remember that.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 