If you died and stood before God and he asked you:

“Why should I let you into Heaven”

What would you say?

Here are some common responses to this simple question:

• “I don’t know.”
• “I have taught Sunday school for years and have been a leader in my church.”
• “I go to church every week and receive communion.”
• “I’m a good parent, friend, or neighbor”
• “I regularly give to charity”
• “I live my life with integrity – I am an honest person”
• “I’m a good parent, I’ll probably go to heaven.”
• “I’ve done more good things than bad things. I’m pretty sure I’ll make it to heaven.”
• “I consider myself a good person.”

Based on my experience in conversation with people, these are common responses. Most people still believe in God but think heaven is rewarded based on performance in this life – doing those things considered “good” and trying not to do those things considered “bad”. These perceptions and beliefs are reflected in the typical responses above.

With a performance based understanding of how to achieve heaven, the goal then becomes to keep the scales of good and bad tipped in our favor. I used to think this was the goal. I figured if I just did more good things than bad things I’d make it to heaven.

If you believe your performance in doing good works earns heaven, then it does raise some additional questions:

What are “good works” exactly? What counts?

Who determines what is good?

How much good is required?

Who is keeping score? The church? God? Myself?

How can I know where I stand – what my score currently is? What score do I need to achieve?

Do good works really count for salvation (a biblical term for eternal life in heaven)?

What do you think? What are the requirements to enter heaven? Are you relying on your own performance? Do you even believe there is a heaven and/or hell? These are important questions to ponder and research since so much is at stake. Here is what I found out myself based on what the scriptures say:

If you think heaven relies on scoring some unknown quota of good deeds or making sure the good outweighs the bad, then the great news is this:

Eternal life in heaven, where there is no more death or disease or pain, no climate change or pollution, no COVID, no injustice or hatred, a perfect world forever and ever – is a free gift. That’s right, it is offered to each one of us as a gift. Is this something that the bible says? Yes.

Here is what the Bible says about salvation (eternal life):

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NET Second Edition)

For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23 (NET Second Edition)

Clearly the salvation of God is a free gift.

Next I’ll address the topic of sin as the Bible defines it. A proper understanding of sin is fundamental to a proper understanding of the gospel and how we should think about performance based requirements for heaven.

So I’ll leave you with the same question: why should the God of heaven let you into heaven? There is only one correct answer.