Do Good People Go To Heaven is a question asked by many people. I think a better question would be: “how do people get to heaven?”
Do Good People Go To Heaven?
A radio Bible program asked its listeners to respond to this following question: How do you get to heaven? Their responses were varied.
- I couldn’t care less
- I’ll cross that bridge when I get there
- God wouldn’t send you to hell
- You have to believe in God
- There is nothing I can do about it
- I don’t dare say that I know I’m going
- Keep the Ten Commandments
- How I live my life…being kind to other people
- Jesus gave His life for my salvation
- Be a good person
As you can see from the varied answers, there is some confusion about the way to heaven and who actually goes to heaven. Moreover, there are people who suggest that being good is a prerequisite for heaven.
How can we find the true path to heaven? Are we able to know for sure if there is a true way to heaven?
Most people want to go to heaven when their life on earth is over. This thought of heaven seems to permeate our society and thinking.
Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
When Jesus said those words about heaven, a man who heard these words was somewhat bewildered. His name was Thomas. After thinking on these words about heaven, Thomas said to Jesus: “I don’t know where heaven is and I don’t know how to get there.”
What Thomas thought many years ago is what most people think today. Where is heaven and how do I get there?
Jesus did not leave Thomas in the dark concerning heaven. So Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). In other words, Jesus is the way to heaven.
How To Get To Heaven!
Do good people go to heaven? The answer to this question is to ask another question: “how do people go to heaven or how to people get to heaven?”
Jesus said He is the way to heaven. How do we appropriate Jesus as the way to heaven?
When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
God’s Way Involves Repentance and Faith!
Appropriating Jesus as the way to heaven involves repentance. Repentance infers an acknowledgement of sin (Romans 3:23) and an intention to turn away from sin.
A Sunday School teacher once asked a class what was meant by the word “repentance.” A little boy put up his hand and said, “It is being sorry for your sins.” A little girl also raised her hand and said, “It is being sorry enough to quit.”
Appropriating Jesus as the way to heaven also involves faith. Faith is believing that Jesus has provided the way to God (John 3:16). That is, Jesus died for our sins and rose again to bring new life and forgiveness for sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-3).
Is there a prayer that I can pray in order to repent of my sins and turn to God in faith and know for sure that I am going to heaven? Yes, there is!
“Dear Heavenly Father, I want to acknowledge before you that I am a sinner and that Jesus Christ saves all those who believe on Him. I now resolve to trust Jesus as my Savior and Master and, by His help, to confess Him before others. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen!”
Personal Testimony: A young man was asked why he became a Christian.
He said, “It wasn’t because I wanted to go to heaven because I already thought I was going to heaven. It wasn’t because I wanted to be a good person because I already thought I was a good people.”
“The reason I became a Christian was because I heard that I had a Savior, Jesus Christ.” “When I realized that Jesus died for my sins and rose for my justification and sanctification, I humbled repented of my sins and I embraced Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. I put my trust in what Jesus did for me to path the way for my journey to heaven.”
Some Helpful Bible Verses
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1-5)
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)