Good People Go To Heaven!

I have been thinking a lot about legalism lately.  First, because it's a major problem in the Church, here and everywhere.  Second, because I'm reading Charles Swindoll's Grace Awakening in Spanish (El Despertar de la Gracia) as part of my language study.  Third, because  I've been discussing legalism, especially in regard to how it occurs here in Bolivian churches, with one of my language helpers.  Naturally, this has had me thinking a lot about Law and Grace, Faith and Works.

I often have thoughts pop into my head, which I then evaluate for truth.  This afternoon, the thought was:

Good People Go To Heaven!

My first response was to reject it as heresy (legalism, universalism, works salvation, etc), and leave it at that, but then I considered it further, and it has consumed every free minute (there haven't been many) of the last few hours.

My standard for Truth is God's Word, the Bible.  Therefore, my first question in any problem is (or should be. . .), "What does the Bible say?"  So, let's look at it (all quotes from NASB):

No one is righteous or good:

“There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” Romans 3:10-12

". . .for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. . ." Romans 3:23 

Everyone has their own moral standard, which they think is good:

"In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 21:25

Although many people think they are good, or appear good to others, God has His own standard, and is more interested in the heart than He is in actions:

 ". . .for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7b

"And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘ This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me." Mark 7:6

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psalm 51:17

I think that we may safely conclude Biblically that NO ONE is good, even if they seem good.  Therefore, according to today's proposition, NO ONE goes to Heaven.  Let's go further:

What about Jesus?  He never sinned, right?  Interesting sidenote here:  according to Romans 5:12, when Adam sinned, we all died, spiritually (look up the doctrine of Federal Headship).  How was Jesus exempted from that?  As I see it, there are only two options:  either Mary was miraculously sinless, or Adam's sin (our sinful nature, or "old man") is passed from father to child.  I believe the Catholic theologians were uncomfortable with their culpability in the latter and chose to believe the former.  I happen to believe the latter, more logical approach.

Jesus was Good, but took our sin upon Himself to make us holy:

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." I Corinthians 5:21

So the question is, then, "How do we become the righteousness of God, in Christ?"

By believing God (the following is a small sampling):

"Then he [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6

". . .if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Romans 10:9-10

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." John 6:47

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16

So good people DO go to Heaven! That is, people that have been made righteous by believing God, specifically about Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

However, the Gospel doesn't stop there.  Not only are we saved from sin's penalty, but we are saved from sin's power!  As "the righteousness of God," we can now LIVE as good people!

Ephesians 2:8-10 is a good summary of this Truth:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

The following passages are important to this as well:

"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace."  Romans 6:8-14

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

  So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."  Romans 8:1-14

Therefore I encourage you to exchange (by faith, nothing else!) your own sinful "goodness" for the righteousness of God, offered to you freely because of Christ's death.  Then, live for Him, in the power given to you by His resurrection, through the Holy Spirit!