Valerie Rae Hanneman
Isaiah 64:6 (CEV) “We are unfit to worship You, each of our good deeds is merely a filthy rag. We dry up like leaves, our sins are storm winds, sweeping us away.”
My boss and I have very different personalities. My personality is very linear. I like to do things a certain way and in a certain order. I think that if a report is due on Friday, it should be finished by Wednesday. My boss’ personality is what I call a scatter-gun. He works on what is in front of him at the moment. Any interruption will send him off in another direction. He is always working on something but not finishing anything as he is pulled in multiple directions. A report due on Friday often finds him scrambling on Friday morning to get it completed. Somehow he manages to get it all done but he drives me so crazy. And yet, there are not many men I hold in higher esteem than my boss. When I was sixteen I was focused on the typical teenage things – boys, the next school dance, boys, geometry, boys, my next swim meet, the mall, boys, phone calls (preferably from boys), the prom and boys. When my boss was sixteen he was already involved with an organization dedicated to bringing justice and equality to the poorest and most overlooked of our society. He is now 50 and his life has continued to be dedicated to justice and equality for the overlooked. He has spent his life being an advocate for the poor. His work habits may drive me to the brink of insanity but I respect and honor his lifelong dedication to the poorest of our society. He is a good man – a really good man.
I am blessed to know a lot of good people. They are people who make a tremendous difference in our community and my heart breaks in sorrow for them. My heart breaks for them because there ain’t no good people in heaven. All of their goodness, all their good deeds, and all the difference that they make here on earth don’t amount to a hill of beans in eternity.
People believe that God is so powerful He can do anything He wants. But that is not true. There is something that He cannot do. Because God is absolutely perfect, God cannot sin. He can fling billions of stars across the universe, but He cannot lie. He can change the seasons, but He cannot change Himself. He can create all of life, but He cannot be dishonest in thought or deed. All of the weaknesses that plague humans – our lusts, our ulterior motives, our greed, jealousy, thefts, etc. – do not touch God. He is perfect. When Moses asked to see His face God answered that for Moses to look upon God would kill him. When Isaiah was taken up into the throne room of God the first thing he said was “I am a doomed man because I am unclean and I have seen God.” Isaiah realized that because of his sins, he could not survive in the presence of our perfect God. Sin cannot be in the presence of God.
God used Isaiah in the older testament to tell us the value of our good deeds. He told us that all of our good deeds are as filthy rags to Him. In the newer testament God used Paul, in his letter to the Romans, to tell us that there is none righteous, no not one. He also tells us in that same letter, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
God’s Word is clear. We have all sinned. No matter how hard we have tried, no matter how much good we have done, we have still sinned and because of that, we cannot be in the presence of God. There ain’t no good people in heaven because there ain’t nobody good enough to be in God’s presence.
Then who is in Heaven – if the good people aren’t there? People – like me – who know that they are not good. People who know that they are sinners and cannot get into heaven on their own goodness are there. People who accepted God’s plan of salvation are in Heaven.
John 3:15 says that God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus is God’s plan of salvation. The Word says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Our sins have earned us eternal death, so God sent Jesus, His only Son, to earth to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus’ last words on the cross were “It is finished.” With His death our sin-debt was paid.
We receive this gift of God’s salvation by admitting to God that we are sinners, then by asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins and to come into our lives as LORD and Savior. When we ask Him into our hearts then Jesus takes our sins away from us and we can be in the presence of God – not because of anything we have ever done – but because of everything Jesus did.
The gift of God is eternal life in His presence – and like any gift, it cannot be earned – it can only be accepted.
How good do you have to be to get into Heaven? You can’t be good enough – it is impossible - you don’t have a chance of making it. It is only through Jesus that we can be in Heaven
There ain’t no good people in Heaven – just redeemed sinners.
If you would like to know more about accepting Jesus as your personal Savior, please contact me at Valerie@fresnofirst.org, or call one of our pastors at (559) Bap-tist or go onto our website at www.fresnofirst.org and click on the “Knowing Jesus” tab.
LORD Jesus, I pray for all those who are reading this and who are not sure of their eternity. Speak to them softly, call them to You. Show them that the way to heaven is through You.