How good is good enough for God?  What is the pass mark?  When does God say “You’ve done enough.”  How do you know when you have earned enough points for heaven?

To get to the Olympics you need to qualify.  This usually means reaching a certain standard.  Whether it is rowing, weightlifting or high jump, there is a standard and if you don’t meet that standard, you can’t go.  No matter if you miss by 100th of a second or 1 millimeter. If you don’t meet the qualifying mark, you can’t go.

So what is God’s standard? What’s God’s qualifying mark?

When we are thinking how good (or bad) we are we tend to look at other people and compare ourselves to them.  If you imagine a scale going up the wall with the best living people on top and worst on the bottom, you might put Mother Teresa or Sir Edmund Hillary near the top, as we consider them to be good living people who have helped the lives of many.  Near the bottom you might put Hitler, mass murderers or rapists.  Where would you put yourself?  How do you measure up?

If you weighed up all the good things you have done against all the bad things you have done, where would you put yourself?  More importantly, where would God put you?  We look at ourselves by comparing ourselves with others.  We think that if the good we have done outweighs the bad, we are in credit and so we think we are good enough for God.

But God uses a different standard for comparison. I think most people vastly overrate how good they are in God’s eyes.  I pay taxes, don’t cheat on my partner, haven’t been to jail and don’t swear much.  We compare ourselves with each other, but God compares you and I with Himself.

If we compare ourselves to child molester, rapist, murderer, we probably come out pretty good.  But how do we stack up when we compare ourselves to God?

The Bible says

 “All have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard.” (Romans 3:23)

“All” means rapist, murderers, Sir Ed, Mother Teresa, the Pope, you and me.

None of us come up to God’s standard.  None of us can earn our way into God’s good books by the things we do or don’t do.  Why?

Because God’s standard is perfection, absolute holiness, having never done anything wrong in my entire life.

The Bible makes it plain that sin, our wrongdoing separates us from God.

 “It is your sins that separate you from God.” (Isaiah 59:2)

You may say hold on I am a good living person. I have no convictions, I go to church and help the community.  I give away money to worthy causes and I grew up in a Christian family.  All these things are good, noble things to do, but they don’t deal with the one thing that separates you from God:

SIN

It doesn’t matter if you have been going to church all your life or never been in the door of a church.  It doesn’t matter if you call yourself a Buddhist, an atheist or a Christian.  It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself to be a good, moral, upright person that people respect, or somebody society has rejected.

We all have one thing in common, we have all sinned and that sin has separated you and I from God, and no amount of good deeds will fix that.

This is where God steps into the picture.  You and I matter to Him.  He loves us and is greatly concerned for you.  He can’t change the standard or look the other way. Holiness doesn’t work that way.  Justice has to be done.  Someone has to take the punishment for our sin.  The price has to be paid.

That is why God sent His only Son, Jesus, to die to take that punishment for you and me.  He took our place.  He paid the price so we wouldn’t have to.

The Bible says

“God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him will not die but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

God loves you and knows you will never reach his standard, so he sent his son to take your place so you can know God personally and heaven can be your destiny.

God doesn’t put a price on this, it’s a free gift.  You may be thinking Jesus died to take my punishment, so I have nothing to worry about, it’s all been taken care of, we are all going to heaven.

Yes, Jesus died for everyone, but God won’t force anyone to accept this gift.  It is only for those who will talk to God and admit they don’t come up to God’s standard and ask Him for forgiveness.

Romans 10:13 “Who ever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”