How good does a person have to be to get into heaven?

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). In that same sermon, Jesus told the Pharisees, who thought that they were good enough to qualify for heaven and who often considered the most religious group of His day, that . . .

a. Even though they had never murdered anyone, if they had been angry with someone to the point of calling them a ‘fool” then they were guilty enough to go into the fiery hell (Matthew 5:22).

b. They might not have committed adultery, but if they looked at a woman with lust in their heart for her, then they had already broken then they had already broken the seventh commandment (Matthew 5:28; cf. Exodus 20:14).

James wrote in James 2:10, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

The truth is, for a man to be good enough to go to heaven by himself, he has to, from the time of his birth until he draws his last breath, be as morally perfect as God. He cannot do this, he needs some help.

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