Never Good Enough!

Most Americans believe in heaven. Ask someone you know if they believe in heaven. Most likely they will answer "yes." Then ask them if they will go to heaven. They will most likely respond "yes" again. It would be a rare person that believed in heaven but did not think that they were headed there.
And if we ask them why they think that they will go to heaven then we will probably get responses such as..."I'm a good person," or "I'm not a murderer," and "I go to church." People seem to think that the entrance to heaven is based on their earthly behavior. Your average Joe person believes that God is somehow weighing their behavior on a spiritual balance and that they will most likely come out on top unless they do something really bad. They have some instinct that there is a judge in the after-life. I think that this belief is innate in all of us.

But is there any information that we can glean about the nature of this balance? To what standard is our behavior being compared? Can we know? If there is a heaven and a God as most of us believe, wouldn't He let us know His standard?

Most of us respect Jesus as a spiritual teacher. He had something to say about this balance. He said that "if you are angry with a person you have already committed murder in your heart." And also, "if you look at a woman lustfully, you have already committed adultery in your heart." In Jesus' mind the balance was infinitely sensitive and tipped by the smallest wrongs.

In Jesus' day, the most holy people in society were the Pharisees. These men had devoted their entire lives to obeying God and his commands. They would be similar to monks, nuns and pastors. Jesus made this amazing statement, "unless your life is better than the Pharisees you will not get into heaven." If Jesus were on earth today, he might have said it this way, "unless you are better than Mother Theresa you will not get to heaven."

If that is the case, who is good enough?