“Good people don’t go to Heaven.” I said these words to my friend, Matt, back in high school as we discussed the reality of life, eternity and religion. Matt’s mother had passed away a few months prior after an intense battle with an aggressive and rare illness. Her death left my friend in a state of brokenness beyond anything he had experienced. That’s huge, because my friend’s life had been far from perfect. In and out of the foster care system, Matt had gone family to family, facing the ongoing pain of rejection. He’d made many poor choices early in his teen years that had landed him time in a juvenile detention facility. He lost his foster father, the man who truly treated him as a son, a few years before and to now lose the woman he considered “mom” was almost unbearable. Death, especially with loved ones, has an interesting way of exposing life’s deepest questions and shaking the very core of our belief system. My friend’s greatest concern was whether or not his mom made it to Heaven.
For the unbeliever the challenge is attempting to attain salvation by their own goodness. For the Believer, the challenge is trying to keep salvation by their own goodness. It wasn’t your goodness that saved you and it won’t be your goodness that keeps you. Ephesians 2:8-9 declares “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” The reality is, your goodness can never be good enough. There is only one solution that results in salvation and that is faith in Jesus Christ.
It wasn’t your goodness that saved you and it won’t be your goodness that keeps you. Share on X
I routinely take time before the Lord to do an inward search. Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth said, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” An inward search is a healthy practice which I believe will help to avoid the pitfall of trusting in self. I’ve come to realize the more I trust in God, the more He empowers me, by His grace, to accomplish the things I could never achieve on my own.
My challenge to you is this: Ask God to reveal every area in your life where you are trusting in self rather than in His ability. Make this a routine practice and allow God to take you from a place of independence (depending on self) into a place of total dependence upon Him.
There is only one solution that results in salvation and that is faith in Jesus Christ. Share on X
Caleb and Ali live in East Tennessee where they serve at The Lift Church. With boldness and conviction, their deepest desire is to see the church revived and the world awakened. Learn more about The Lift by visiting theliftchurch.tv.
