Genesis 3

Have you ever asked a person what qualifies them to make it into Heaven and heard the response “I’ll make it into Heaven because I’m a good person”? If you then ask them what their definition of good is, you’ll probably get a list of things that they have done that they consider is good and righteous. But if we read Isaiah 64:6:

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

We find that even our good and righteous works are as filthy rags. Why would God not accept our works of righteousness? To find the answer to this we have to go back to Genesis 3 and look at verse 6:

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Notice that even before Eve took a bite out of the fruit, she had already decided that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “was good for food”, even though it was not, it was death. Eve had usurped God definition of what was good and what was evil, she place herself at par with God. So whenever we think we are good enough and deserve a place in Heaven, we are tell God our definition of what is good and evil is better than His, just as Eve did in the garden.

So what is good? The answer can be found in Matthew 19:17:

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

To find the goodness and righteousness we need to be with God in Heaven we need God’s definition of good and that is Jesus Christ.

To start to learn more about Jesus Christ go to The Way of Salvation