Believe it or not, the title’s question above has an incredibly simple answer, but the things you must understand to grasp it are not so easy. Let us start with another question.

What if a man were to torture and murder a woman, for which he is sentenced to life in prison; but after seven years he is paroled for one reason or another?

This man then does nothing but good, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and working tirelessly for good causes. Should he go to heaven?

Do you think that the dead woman’s parents and loved ones would want him to go to heaven?

Go a little farther, what if the dead woman is African, Mexican, Brazilian or Asian? Does that change your opinion of this man?

Careful, only approved bigotry is tolerated in a politically correct world.

So, what if I disagree with your opinion, or her parents, or a hundred others, do numbers count?

It is fortunate that these decisions are not ours to make, it is God’s heaven, God’s rules. However, it is everyone’s job to select his destination, be it heaven or hell.

In this you are completely free to choose; I might add regardless as to whether you are, African, Mexican, Brazilian, Asian even white. Even a murderer!

If someone is too lazy or just cannot be bothered with such decisions, remember this, the default is always hell.

Perhaps you have seen the little cartoons of a great white throne with God sitting on it in judgment and all of mankind writhing in agony before it?

If you have then you need to know that this scene is only partially true and that the error is a grave one.

The thing wrong with these judgment day pictures is that all of mankind will not be standing before this great white throne, just those who elected to be there and those who negligently put off the selection of their final home.

The reason people think that all mankind will be before the great white throne on judgment day is they are under the impression that when we come before God on that day, He weighs our good deeds against our bad deeds, and if the good outweighs the bad, bingo we are in.

There are Biblical references that seem to indicate that heaven is gained by works, these are taken out of context. The ones that guarantee that simple faith in what God has provided for salvation are far more numerous and crystal clear as to their meaning.

“And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Joel 2:32a.

God has provided a way of entering heaven without the need to make sure that you are always doing something for God. In fact He tells us that all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags to Him.

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6.

Why such a harsh assessment, after all if a person is sincere and doing their best shouldn’t that count?

A couple of reasons why our righteous deeds are accounted as filthy rags are first off that God is so holy that there is no possibility of meeting His criterion for righteousness.

Let me rephrase that, it is absolutely impossible for any of us to meet God’s requirement for righteousness, there are no exceptions.

Another reason our works are considered filthy rags is that God does not ask us to work our way to heaven, He asks us to accept the sacrifice of His Son Jesus as payment for our sins. To ignore this and try to work your way to heaven anyway is just more rebellion it is sin.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.

This whole faith in Jesus process is clearly taught throughout the Bible. The fact that Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again as payment for our sin is what is called the gospel or good news.

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

This good news is not limited to the fact that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin making us fit to enter God’s presence in heaven and rescues us from an eternity of torment in hell, but the power of the shed blood of Christ guarantees an eternal life beginning right now.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

Notice those last three words, “have [present tense] everlasting life.” The everlasting life starts when a person accepts Christ as Savior.

You will also note that you are not instructed to go out and do a bunch of God works to stay saved.

Too many Christians are working for something they already have instead of seeking a closer relationship with the Lord Jesus.

So let us see if we can come to a better understanding of the problem of the holiness of God and the righteousness of man.

Assume for a moment that it is Mother’s Day, on a farm, the father and young daughter wish to honor mother in a special way, so they tell her to relax today saying they will do all the chores around the farm, including hers.

Well, this is too good to turn down, so mother goes in and takes a hot bubble bath, puts on her favorite nightgown and with a cup of tea and a good book she goes in and lies down in bed.

A couple of hours pass and being absorbed in her book she hears her daughter call out, “Mommy the chores are done, may I get in bed with you?” “Why yes dear” she replies as she looks up, “Whoa! What happened to you?” “Oh, I was slopping the hogs when I fell in the mud, may I get in bed with you?”

“Of course, dear, but first go take a bath.” “No mommy”, she replies “I want to lie down with you now.” “Look, I will tell you what, come into the bathroom and I will wash you off myself.” “No mommy, please, I want to lie down with you now!”

This is a poor example, but there are some things we can learn from it. If the mother lets the child get into bed with her covered with filth, there is no way she will be as comfortable as she was before.

Now, this is important, no matter whether the child washes or not the mother will not cease to love her with all her heart!

The holiness of God and pig filth is a poor example, but it shows that God could never be comfortable with sin in His presence, nor would heaven be heaven with such corruption inhabiting it.

Remember this too, God loves you and me more than the mother in our illustration could ever love her daughter. Scripture teaches us that God is infinitely holy, and it tells us that God is love.

How then can He reconcile these two things so we can come into His presence?

“…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7b.

Why is There a Hell? Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-7-25 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.