The man who gave his name to the oldest book of the Bible, Job, asked the question, “If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14:14). The question of life after death has filled man’s thoughts throughout history.

But the most important question is, “What happens after death?”

Are you a good person?

Most people believe that if they are generally good, they will go to heaven. In other words, their good works will make up for their bad deeds, or if they sincerely try to lead a good life, God will accept them.

The problem is that good deeds don’t make you a good person, and the Bible makes it clear that there are no intrinsically good people. Romans 3:10 states: There is none righteous, not even one.

I know

To say that there are no good people anywhere may sound very unfair and harsh. After all, you might think, “What about people like Mother Teresa and Gandhi? Weren’t they good people?” History will look kindly on all such individuals as selfless people with high moral standards and great personal integrity.

God’s Standard

The problem lies in the fact that God doesn’t judge us by human standards, He judges us by His own. What are those standards? Quite simply, the Ten Commandments. I invite you to examine the Ten Commandments with me and, as we go through them, evaluate yourself to see if you measure up to the perfection God demands.

If you’re like me, you probably didn’t do very well.

If you’re completely honest with yourself, I think you’ll find that you’ve broken most, if not all, of God’s commandments at one time or another. Even if we break only one commandment, it’s as if we’ve broken them all (James 2:10).

By God’s standards, we are all liars, thieves, idolaters, blasphemers and adulterers at heart. We have all, at one time or another, disobeyed our parents, coveted, and failed to put God first in our lives.

You see, by God’s standards, we’re not as good as we might have imagined. The truth is that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23).

God is rich in mercy and has given his Son, Jesus Christ, as the only way to forgive your sins.

Jesus lived a perfect life; he never sinned, not even once. And he offered his sinless life as a sacrifice to pay for your sins. When he was crucified, he exchanged his perfection for your sin, so that all the sins you committed were imputed to him and his righteousness was credited to you.

What’s more, he absorbed in his body the eternal wrath of God that was supposed to fall upon you. He has taken over your punishment, so that God no longer has to make you pay.

You broke God’s law, the 10 Commandments, but Jesus paid your fine and satisfied God’s justice through his perfect life and sacrificial death.
Jesus died in your place and, because his sacrifice was sufficient, he rose from the grave on the third day in a glorified body, in which he ascended to heaven, promising that we too will one day be resurrected.

God offers us forgiveness of our sins and eternal life, not because we’re good, but because Jesus paid for us. What we need to do in response is repent (turn from our sins) and place our trust in Jesus for eternity.

As soon as we do this (repent and believe), God promises that he will forgive us of every one of our sins and grant us the free gift of eternal life in Heaven.

This is wonderful good news!