How Good Is Good Enough?

I just couldn’t help it, today I had to post something from someone else’s book, not my own writing. It’s just that it was too good NOT to write about. Andy Stanley, in his book, Since Nobody’s Perfect, How Good Is Good Enough?, that came out last year talks about the “good people go to heaven” view. Here are some of his conclusions:

1. We don’t know exactly what good is. Even our religious leaders can’t agree on the subject.


2. Our internal moral gauges aren’t much help. They don’t line up cross-culturally (or even across the street, for that matter). And as time passes, our definitions of right and wrong tend to change.


3. We have no clear indication from God how the scoring system for good deeds works.


4. It is difficult to reconcile the notion of a good God with a system that is so unclear and seemingly unfair. This is especially true in light of what’s at stake.


5. We can’t use the Bible as a gauge to measure how close we are to getting in. The Bible doesn’t claim to offer a way to heaven through good works. Besides, the catalog of good works listed in the Old Testament is culturally irrelevant and physically impossible to keep.


6. Jesus assured most people of his day that they weren’t good enough to enter God’s kingdom, while promising criminals and prostitutes that God would gladly welcome them.

He goes on to say that we could come up with even more “good people go” views. But we still wonder and worry if we're right. The “good people go” view originated with the ancient people’s trying to appease angry gods. For thousands of years people have been trying to find a successful formula for keeping the gods (or God) pacified and happy. Stanley says that this is a belief that will not go away, despite the fact that it really doesn’t make any sense. He goes on to say that there is another explanation: forgiven people go to heaven; people who have been made good by God. That’s the key. God made us good because we could not do it on our own. That is why Paul says in Romans 7:25, after calling himself a wretch: “Thanks be to God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!”