2022.12.11 Born in Us
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Born in Us
Born in Us
Psalm 25:6-13 • Galatians 2:17-21
Who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell?
Such an elementary question that we all ask without asking.
I would suggest, most if not all of us have walked into a church building at some point searching for the answer to this question.
Rather than asking you what you think … let me ask you what do you think the general public believes?
An overwhelming majority of people believe Heaven exists, even if they have no religious affiliation. That percentage actually INCREASED by 1 percentage point from 2014 to 2021. Even 3% of atheists believe in Heaven.
[Pew Research Center (2014), 72% of adults believe in Heaven, including 37% of people who respond that they have no religious affiliation. https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/belief-in-heaven/ • Pew Research Center (2021), 73% believe in Heaven, 37% among religiously unaffiliated. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/11/23/views-on-the-afterlife/]
So, they believe in Heaven…but… let me ask a couple of non-rhetorical questions...
Who goes to Heaven? (non-rhetorical question)
Who goes to Hell?
Most people settle into this theory:
Good people go to Heaven …
Bad people go to Hell
Let’s call this the “Good People Go” theory.
That may be the most popular theory, but that theory is problematic.
In the Bible, repetition indicates importance!
In a minute, I’m going to show you two psalms side-by-side. In the English translations, we can see three differences, but in the Hebrew, there are only two…
One word (Yahweh vs. Elohim) (two different names for God)
One letter (shur vs. shug) difference between these two psalms:
For an entire psalm to be repeated almost verbatim, and then for BOTH to be included in the canon of the Bible, may I suggest that this psalm holds some truth that we should try to hear clearly?
Those differences are all in the first three verses, so I’m only going to show you those three verses. Verses 4-7 are identical in the English and the Hebrew.
►►► [side-by-side on screen]
Psalm 14 [CEB]
1 Fools say in their hearts, There is no God.
They are corrupt and do evil [same word in Hebrew] things;
not one of them does anything good.
2 The LORD [Yahweh] looks down from heaven on humans
to see if anyone is wise,
to see if anyone seeks God
3 but all of them have turned bad [sur].
Everyone is corrupt.
No one does good—not even one person!
Psalm 53 [CEB]
1 Fools say in their hearts, There’s no God.
They are corrupt and do horrible deeds;
not one of them does anything good.
2 God [Elohim] looks down from heaven on humans
to see if anyone is wise,
to see if anyone seeks God.
3 But all have turned away [sug].
Everyone is corrupt.
No one does good—not even one person!
►►► Breakdown
As we look at these on the screen, let me break down what we see:
“There is no God” is a foolish belief
God looks down from above and judges humans
Everyone is corrupt
►►► No one does good – not even one person
Direct quote from the Bible in two different locations!
NO SLIDE
18 But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
There are no good people! There are only sinners!
So, if “Good People Go”, that means NO ONE goes to Heaven!
Andy Stanley [book cover]
Andy Stanley tells a story in his book “How Good is Good Enough?”
He bought a used Infiniti. It was in mint condition and was the nicest car he’d ever owned.
One morning while taking out the trash, he noticed an “A” scratched into the hood of the car. When he looked closer, there were several other letters attempted next to the clear “A”.
So he angrily called his kids to demand to know who scratched into his prized possession … after a bit of awkward silence … one of his sons ‘outed’ his daughter, Allie. When he asked directly, Allie confessed she was the culprit.
A mere 3½ years old, she couldn’t possibly understand the gravity of what she’d done. She wouldn’t understand the process of a body shop and a car rental in the meantime. So explaining it to her would have been a waste of breath. Andy concluded it would be absurd to expect her to pay such a cost at 3½!
So, he knelt down to her level, and he did the only thing he could do:
He put his arm around his toddler and said, “Allie, please don’t do that anymore.” She said, “Yes, sir, Daddy!” and hugged him and went back inside the house.
Andy Stanley’s love wasn’t diminished one bit. He wasn’t concerned with fairness. He paid the cost of the damage his daughter had caused. He discovered what was most appropriate was grace and mercy.
You see, the bad news … the VERY bad news is … there is no way for you or me to pay the debt we owe for our sin. We’ve scratched eternity, and we couldn’t begin to pay for the damage done.
Stanley’s concludes the story this way:
God sees your sin as a debt you can’t pay. There’s no point in asking you to. To think that being good will somehow make you square with God would be like Allie promising to clean her room after being confronted with the damage she’d done to my car. Cleaning up her room doesn’t pay me back. It’s a nice gesture, but it doesn’t fix my car.
[Stanley, Andy, How Good Is Good Enough?, WalterBrook Multnomah/Random House: New York, 2003, Chapter 11]
Born in Us
Born in Us
We HAVE TO understand that very bad news!
We have to understand it … so that we can understand the very GOOD news!
Christianity teaches that just like Andy Stanley paid for his daughter’s horrific infraction … so God paid for ours. That’s not anywhere close to fair … and Thank you, God for not being fair! Amen?
Read
19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.
20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You see, we aren’t made right with God by doing good … because we couldn’t possibly undo the bad we’ve already done! Good acts wouldn’t fix Andy’s car, and they certainly won’t counterbalance or fix the sin you and I have committed.
Simply saying a prayer won’t save you from owing your debt. Placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your savior makes you a Christian — your faith is what sets you free from the punishment your sin deserves, and faith can deliver you and me from being dead to alive!
Nouwen quote from Advent Devotional:
It is not enough to try to imitate Christ as much as possible; it is not enough to remind others of Jesus; it is not even enough to be inspired by the words and actions of Jesus Christ. No, the spiritual life presents us with a far more radical demand: to be living Christs here and now, in time and history.
The good news … the VERY good news … the INCOMPREHENSIBLY GOOD NEWS is that:
“Good people don’t go to heaven
Forgiven people go to heaven.”
[Andy Stanley, “How Good is good enough?” WalterBrook Multnomah/Random House: New York, 2003 p. 90]
One of my favorite lines in any Christmas carol is in O Little Town of Bethlehem. The fourth verse includes the lines:
O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born in us today
The truth of Christmas is that “good people don’t go to heaven” because none of us are good. Rather … Christmas is the promise that people who ask Jesus to be born in them go to heaven.
Are you ready to ask him to cast out your sin and enter in … be born in you today?
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, thank you for not being fair, because you don’t give us what we deserve!
Thank you for instead being merciful.
True fairness would have separated me from you forever, because that is what I deserve.
Thank you for sending Jesus to die and resurrect for my sins instead.
Here and now, I place my faith in him as my savior and Lord. O, Jesus:
Cast out my sin - enter into my heart - be born in me today. Come and take command of my life. I look forward to seeing you in Heaven someday … not as a “good person” … but as a forgiven child of God.
Amen.