By 
Beware of people thinking they are good. I'm scared for certain people. I see it all the time; look around and you will too. It goes like this:
I heard recently, he's in a "better place".
I saw a baseball player point to the sky and dedicate a game to his dad assuming he was "up". Maybe he was. Athletes point up a lot.
Our culture lives with an assumption that if you're good you go to heaven, and if you're bad you go to hell. This is a glaring problem. Who determines this? How did we come up with this? It sounds very American to think this way.
The Bible speaks clearly here. Nobody is good: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, NIV). Our culture thinks good people somehow deserve heaven. Yet, despite our world of entitlement we don't deserve heaven. This leads to a cumulative problem: nobody is good and we don't deserve heaven.
How then do we get "good" and get heaven? We don't get good. The impossible is made possible, all by grace. Jesus is Holy and invites us into relationship. When we believe and receive His invitation, He, in us, is good, holy, and righteous. We are not good. Jesus, in and through us, is good.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…not counting
men’s sins against them….God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God.
—2 Corinthians 5:17-21, NIV
Heaven isn't deserved or earned. It's a free gift rooted in grace. It is not arrogant for Jesus to say there is one way only. He is Truth, speaks truth, and speaks boldly. At the cross He bore all the past, present, and future sins of humanity, offering forgiveness to all. Stunning. It is by grace (we are) saved through faith—and this not from (ourselves), it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV).
Admit you're a sinner. Believe Jesus is who He says He is. Receive Him by inviting Him into your life, asking for forgiveness of sin. This doesn't make you good; it allows Jesus' goodness to flow through you. It seals you and I with the assurance of heaven: And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV).
He who has (Jesus) has life; he who does not have the Son of God (Jesus) does not have life (1 John 5:12, NIV). We can have security in knowing, through Jesus, we have eternal life (1 John 5:13).
I don't know peoples' hearts; it's not for me to know. I do know Truth. Truth is a person (John 14:6). His name is Jesus. Be careful of “good” people living with and teaching some kind of entitlement. I need help. We all need help. Jesus offers help to those humble enough to admit their need for help.
Remember 2 things:
1. Jesus doesn't make bad people good. Jesus makes dead people alive.
2. Everybody spends eternity somewhere and eternity is too long to be wrong.
Randy Prosperi
Randy Prosperi was born in Houston and has lived in Tyler with his wife of 16 years and 2 daughters since 2001. He holds a Masters in Christian Education from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Bachelors of Business Administration from Stephen F. Austin. Randy joined the mission of Womenary as a Professor in 2017. 
