Not Good Enough

“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keeps his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” (Revelation 14:12-13)

Yesterday, we talked about sharing your story and sharing the gospel. And what is the gospel, exactly? Gospel means good news. We want to share the good news of Jesus Christ. But if there is good news, that must mean there is bad news. What is the bad news, you may ask? The bad news is we are all sinners.

We have all broken the commandments. But we must understand something so important to the gospel. And that is the fact that there is bad news means that all of us need a savior because we can’t be good enough to get to heaven on our own. That is why God so loved the world that he gave His Son Jesus.

Jesus never looked at a woman with lust in his heart. He never stole anything. He is the only one that completed all the commandments and did so to perfection. He is the only one who is good enough. And yet, He died as if He wasn’t. He died for you and me and every single person who has ever taken a breath. That is the good news.

We cannot and will not go to heaven because we are good enough. Your story alone will tell that. As we said yesterday, your story is great. But that story did not happen without you messing up and breaking commandments along the way. Thankfully, Jesus died so that you don’t have to be good enough. You just have to believe.

That’s it? You mean to go to a perfect place like heaven, all I have to do is believe? That is exactly right. If you are willing to acknowledge that you are not good enough, that you have sinned and apart from Jesus you cannot reach heaven, but you know He died for you so that you can have that relationship with Him, you can go to heaven. You just have to be willing to go before God and truly believe that. The good news of the gospel is your good news. You do not have to be good enough because He was and is!