Is Good, Good Enough?
When it comes to matters of eternal life, we can’t afford to be wrong, and therefore we must put away every preconceived idea and appeal strictly to God’s word and ask ourselves heart searching questions. The question we should always start with is this:
How holy does a man have to be to go to heaven?
What do the Scriptures actually teach us?
Consider these verses.
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
(Matthew 5:48)
“Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 5:20)
It’s important to remember in this specific context WHO spoke these words. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. Seeing that He was truly God in human flesh, He can command no less than perfection. He wasn’t telling us to give it our best shot to be perfect, or to try our best to produce a righteousness by our obedience to His ten commandments. He was telling us HOW HOLY one must be to go to heaven. For you or me to go heaven, WE MUST BE AS HOLY AS GOD. These verses are both from the Sermon on the Mount, and they along with the entire Sermon on the Mount were preached by our Lord to show us the utter impossibility of any of us going to heaven based on our best attempts to do what His holy law and justice command.
I know you’re thinking, “If God requires us to be as holy as Himself to enter into His heaven, none of us are going to make it, because none of us are that holy.”
You’re absolutely right and absolutely wrong. You’re absolutely right in the sense that none of us based on our best obedience to God’s holy law can be as holy as God. But you’re absolutely wrong in assuming that it’s based on your obedience to begin with. God has graciously told us WHAT He requires and demands in order to force us to look to His appointed Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Righteousness He established by His obedience unto death as the ONLY ground or hope of eternal life.
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and or heavy-laden, and I’ll give you rest.”
(Matthew 11:28)
Is Christ your REST?
I hope He is.
By Richard Warmack
Jesus is LORD! 
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