Aaron Rodgers, the star quarterback of the Green Bay Packers made waves when he proclaimed, “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell. What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn his beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?” Mr. Rodgers is misinformed about the God in whom he does not believe.
Jesus was clear saying He did not come to condemn the world, but to deliver it from the forces of evil (John 3:17-18). We are saved from the condemnation Mr. Rodgers talks about by bowing down to Jesus as Lord and surrendering our lives to Him. Those who reject Jesus condemn themselves, it is not the will of God (John 3:18; 2 Peter 3:9).
It is because of our great God’s love that we are given the choice between eternal freedom in Jesus or condemnation for eternity with Satan. God could have forced us to love Him. He could have given us no choice in the way we would live, but He gave us free will. If not for free will, we could not experience love. Love must be chosen. It cannot be dictated or coerced. Given the choice, few would live their life like an automaton, having no say in what they do. That is slavery, perhaps the highest injustice man ever created.
Many want to have it both ways. They want to blame God for evil in the world without accepting their own responsibility for it. We have all fallen short of God’s standard for living our lives (Romans 3:23). Each of us needs a lifeline, a Savior, to save us from ourselves.
It is a rare day when I don’t hear or read the question, “Do good people go to Heaven?” Jesus said there was no such thing as a ‘good’ person. By what measure are people asking such a question? What does it mean to be a ‘good’ person? Who gets to make the call whether someone is good?
Only God is good. Only He is holy. Unless we are God–who is the only measure of what is good-we will miss the mark. So, the question is illogical. Without the blood of Jesus, no can ever be good enough. To complete the loop, the answer is ‘no’. A good person who doesn’t believe in Jesus will not go to Heaven because there are no ‘good’ people apart from Christ.
On the flip side of the “Do good people go to Heaven?” question, the answer is, “Absolutely!” When anyone surrenders their life to the Lordship of Christ, they are baptized in the blood of Jesus. They are now clean. They are good. Those are the ones who will spend eternity with Jesus. That’s not the answer people want to hear. They want assurance without servitude. It doesn’t work that way. You must choose one or the other. If you don’t like the system, create your own universe. While you’re working on that, the rest of us need to get serious about our commitment to Jesus.
Only those who hold Jesus as Lord will make the cut. It takes more than a prayer. We must render total surrender of our will, words, and actions. It’s an all-or-nothing proposition, and it’s the only way to secure your place with Christ for eternity. Do good people go to Heaven? Only if they have the goodness of Jesus living inside them.