Are You Good Enough to Go to Heaven? p.5
(By: Eddie Goodwin)
3. We must all receive righteousness as a gift; not earn it as a reward.
There is a third reason why none of us will ever be good enough to go to heaven. Verse seventeen (Romans 5:16-17) tells us that it is “those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness” that “will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” We will never be good enough to go to heaven because we are all children of Adam by nature. We will never be good enough to go to heaven because we all have broken God’s law personally. We will never be good enough to go to heaven because it is only those who receive righteousness as a gift that will reign in eternal life with Jesus Christ.
The text could not be any clearer. The righteousness or perfect obedience that we need in order to spend eternity in heaven with God is a gift – a free gift. Adam’s children by nature do not have it. They cannot have it unless they receive it as a free gift from God by grace through the One Man, the New Adam, Jesus Christ. You cannot earn it. You’ll never be good enough to get it. But, praise God, you don’t need to be! It’s a free gift given by God to all those who will turn to Christ as the Righteous One.
Application:
Parents, you may be able to help your children think of it this way. Imagine a scoreboard like one you would find on a baseball field. The home
team side of the scoreboard is your righteousness and the score is a big fat zero because you are a child of Adam and a have sinned against God. The visitor side is Christ’s righteousness and His score is so high that the numbers just keep on climbing and climbing. The trophy that you are trying to win is eternal life. How many points do you think you will need to earn to win the trophy? You can’t earn enough points to win eternal life. Your score is zero and it will always be zero! You can never be good enough to earn eternal life!
What would happen though, if Jesus gave you all of His points as a free gift? What would happen if He switched His high score over to your side and took your sinful zero over to His side of the board? Would you gain eternal life then? Listen to me friends. This is exactly what Christ will do if you will receive His free gift! In 2 Corinthians we learn that God made Christ, “who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This is how Christ glorified His Heavenly Father. He came into the world to save His people. He lived the perfect life they could never live and suffered the punishment their sins deserve. This is the gospel or good news. Christ has come into the world to save sinners and He will welcome all who come to Him to receive His free gift of righteousness. Please hear me friends, everyone in Adam must flee to Christ or face the wrath of God in judgment. To borrow from Pastor Martin again, everyone needs to move from riding piggy back on fallen Adam to riding piggy back on Christ. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
All of these young people have come to understand these truths. They know they are sinners because of Adam’s one transgression. They know have broken God’s law numerous times and they know they can never earn eternal life by being good. Each of them heard the gospel and cried out to God to receive His free gift of righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of their lives have shown evidences of the Holy Spirit’s work making them more like Christ in both their obedience and sorrow for sin.
The members of Cornerstone Fellowship want this for every single person we come into to contact with. Our prayer is that as you have heard the gospel preached and as you hear these gospel testimonies from the waters of baptism that you will turn to Christ as well. Today is the day of salvation. We beg you do not harden your hearts against the gospel of Christ.