Good moral people who trust in Jesus morality, not their own morality, will be in Heaven because of Jesus perfection...

This week we are addressing the seventh of these eight common questions that those who are skeptical ask as a challenge to God and the Christian faith. And that question is this: “Won’t a good moral person get to Heaven?” Yesterday, we discovered that this is not a new question. As a matter a fact this question is the subject of a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Romans.

The book of Romans is a letter that was written to a church that was located in the center of the most powerful empire in the known world. As Christianity began to take root and spread in the midst of this diverse intellectual, cultural, and spiritual society, a question began to be asked by the residents of Rome: Is the God that is portrayed in the Bible right? Are the claims of Christianity right? 

Paul responded to these questions by writing a letter that proclaimed that the timeless answer to these questions was that the claims of Jesus Christ and the message of the gospel reveal the reality that God is right. Paul proclaimed that God is right. God always has been right; God always will be right. Paul then stated that the fact that God is right is revealed to all humanity through the message of the gospel.

However, Paul was well aware that there were people who would question and push back against the idea that the message of the gospel reveals the reality that God is right. Paul began to address this question and push back by proclaiming that humanity is guilty of having a problem with God when we leave God out and live as though He does not exist.

However, Paul recognized that some people reading his letter would respond to Paul’s charge by thinking “Well I am not like those people. I don’t ignore God, I just believe that I am a good moral person and because I am a good moral person, I don’t have a problem with God. So, am I guilty?”

In Romans 2 Paul addressed the person who would argue that they were a good moral person. This person would argue that they do not have a problem when it comes to having a relationship with God because they are good, moral people who live according to specific code of conduct or standards. However, Paul’s responded to the person who viewed themselves as a good moral person by stating that they had no excuse that they can use to avoid being found guilty of having a problem when it comes to having a relationship with God.

Paul charged that the good moral person was guilty based on the evidence of their own violations. Paul stated that the moral person had no excuse that they could use to deny that they were guilty because in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. Paul exposed the timeless implications of their failure to live according to their own code of conduct. Because, if you believe that you are a good moral person based on the code of conduct that you use to pass unfavorable judgment upon the lives and actions of others, then where does that leave you when you violate your code of conduct?

Paul then exposed the timeless implications of misunderstanding God’s gracious kindness. Paul’s point was that a good moral person has a tendency to look with contempt upon God’s gracious and beneficial act of bearing up and putting up with humanity as they continually selfishly rebel and reject God. However, the good moral person is often ignorant and uniformed as to why God extends such gracious tolerance. While a good moral person views God’s gracious patience with contempt, God’s gracious patience is divinely designed to provide the opportunity for people to recognize their selfishness and rebellion and respond by turning a life that was running away from God back toward God.

Paul explained that the very fact that a good moral person views God’s gracious patience and tolerance with contempt reveals the reality of their own hard and rebellious heart that refuses to turn away from their code of conduct and turn towards God. And it is this hard heart and rebellious attitude of a good moral person that results in them experiencing God’s just and right response to their selfishness, rebellion, and sin.

And it is God’s just and right verdict to selfishness, sin, and rebellion that Paul turns to in order to provide a second piece of evidence to prove his claim that a good moral person is guilty of having a problem when it comes to a relationship with God. Let’s look at it together, beginning in Romans 2:6-11:

who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

Here we see Paul explain that at the end of God’s story here on earth, when Jesus returns to earth to defeat selfishness, sin, and death, all of humanity will be judged according to their deeds. Paul then revealed the standard that God will apply when it comes to judging humanity: For those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, they will receive the reward of experiencing life in the relationship with God that we were created for all eternity in heaven.

In other words, to experience the relationship with God that we were created for in Heaven for all eternity, a person must be devoted and driven by the desire to live a life of good that achieves a status and standard that is worthy of such recognition. And not only must they achieve that status, they must persevere in maintaining that status. They must possess the capacity to hold out and bear up in the face of all the difficulties that come with trying to achieve and maintain that status and standard of good.

For the person who achieves and maintains a status and standard of good, Paul explains that they will receive glory and honor and peace. The good person will receive the honor and a state of well-being that comes from being at peace with God as a result of achieving such a high status and standard. And the honor and peace that will be experienced as a result of God’s just and right response to meeting His standard will be experienced rightly and justly by everyone who meets that standard.

Regardless of social, cultural, ethnic, or economic status, all who meet God’s standards will receive God’s just and fair response to our good moral life. You see, there is no partiality with God. God does not play favorites, but judges everyone with perfect justice.

However, for those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, they will receive wrath and indignation. In other words, the person who lives a life that is driven by selfishness and that chooses to rebel and reject God and the truth about God in order to embrace a life and lifestyle that is at odds with God and opposes God will experience God’s just and right response to such rebellion and sin.

And the trouble and distress that will be experienced as a result of God’s right and just response to our rebellion will be experienced rightly and justly by everyone who is guilty. Regardless of social, cultural, ethnic, or economic status, all who are found guilty of failing to meet God’s standards will receive God’s just and fair response of punishment for our guilt. You see, there is no partiality with God. God does not play favorites, but judges everyone with perfect justice.

Now you may describe yourself as a good moral person and you just need the goal to strive for. And you are wondering “well what is the standard that Paul is talking about here? What does good look like?” Great question and the answer is simple; perfection. In other words, from God’s perspective, a good moral person must live a perfect life.

And it is here where we see Paul provide the second piece of evidence to prove his claim that a good moral person is guilty of having a problem when it comes to a relationship with God. And that second piece is that we are guilty based on the evidence of our inferior standards. While we may consider ourselves good moral people, no one usually uses perfection as the standard to strive for when it comes to moral excellence.

The reality is that you do not need forgiveness or rescue if you live a perfect life. So if you live a perfect life then you do not need Jesus. It is as simple as that. Now before you scream heresy, let me ask you a question: How do you think Jesus got into Heaven? You see, the reason that Jesus was able to enter into Heaven was because He lived a perfect life, isn’t it? Jesus was fully human and lived a perfect sinless life, which enabled Him to allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Jesus Himself proved that you just need to be perfect to get into Heaven.

Now here is the question: Are you perfect? Or have you lowered the bar when it comes to how you measure moral excellence? We do not set that standard because we intuitively recognize that it is unreachable. And whether or not you buy into the Jesus, Bible, or church thing, our culture readily recognizes this reality. We even have a phrase that we use to acknowledge this reality, don’t we: “Well nobody’s perfect”.

And because of this reality, we instead choose to set an inferior standard to strive for in an effort to achieve what we would consider moral excellence. You see, it is our inferior standards that serve as evidence of our guilt when it comes to the problem we have with God. However, the harsh truth is that, at the end of the day, there is only one standard that matters when it comes to good. And that standard of good is God’s standard. And God’s standard of good is perfection.

And it is here that we discover the timeless answer to the skeptical question “Won’t a good moral person get to Heaven?” And that timeless answer is this: Good moral people who trust in Jesus morality, not their own morality, will be in Heaven because of Jesus perfection. The letters that make up the Bible reveal the reality that only good, moral, and ethical people will go to Heaven. The problem is that God does not grade on a curve. And while most people subjectively compare themselves with other people, God has a simple objective standard, which is perfection.

You see, for God to be just, there must be one objective standard that is equally applied to all humanity. Otherwise God is not just. After all, if the standard is not perfection, then which standards can be ignored and how often can they be ignored? If those who violate rule x are let in Heaven, while those who violate rule y are not allowed in Heaven, is that just? No, it would not be just. God is His justice has an objective standard of perfection that reinforces His rightness and justness.

And because of that reality, only perfect people are allowed in Heaven. And the timeless reality is that no human person except Jesus achieves that perfection on earth. And intuitively we know that we are not perfect because we do not keep the own standards that we set for ourselves and by which we measure and judge others. We know that we are not perfect because our consciences provide evidence that we have done things that violate our standards and God’s standards, which He has written on the hearts of all humanity.

And that is why God sent His Son Jesus, who entered into humanity to perfectly live the life that we refused to live and then willingly allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. And when we place our confident trust in what God has done for us by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader, we receive forgiveness and are able to enter into Heaven because we are credited as living Jesus perfect life.

You see, it is at the cross that God’s justice and love collide. In His justice, God demands the punishment of death for the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. And in His love, God sent His Son Jesus into humanity in order to allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Jesus death on the cross satisfied God’s justice, and demonstrated God’s love by giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away. So good, moral, and ethical people who believe, trust, and follow Jesus will be in Heaven because of Jesus morality, not their morality.

So do you consider yourself a good moral person who strives to live life according to a code of conduct? How are you doing? Have you violated that code of conduct yourself? How strong is your code of conduct? Does it require perfection? Have you ever suffered from a guilty conscience?

Because, the timeless reality is that we are guilty when we live life as though we can achieve moral excellence. We are guilty based on the evidence of our own violations of the standards we set for others. We are guilty based on the evidence of our inferior standards. And we are guilty based on the evidence of our own consciences.

And if we are guilty, then we have a problem when it comes to our relationship with God. A problem that needs a solution. A problem that requires rescue. A problem that requires responding to the gospel.

And as we discovered, good moral people who trust in Jesus morality, not their own morality, will be in Heaven because of Jesus perfection...