Only Bad People Go To Heaven
Rethinking
Who God Declares Righteous
By
C.T.Haun for Rethinker.net
(rough draft – April 2007)
It
is commonly held in most Christian circles that to “get to heaven” and/or to
get into good standing with God one has to be relatively good in their
behavior. In this rethink I will
challenge that assumption and pursue the question of whether the opposite is in
fact true according to the words of Jesus and his ambassadors. My thesis in this rethink is that only bad
people have a chance of right standing with God.
To some who were confident
of their own righteousness
and looked down on
everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the
temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the
other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood up
and prayed about himself:
'God, I thank you that I
am not like other men—
robbers, evildoers, adulterers—
or even like this tax
collector.
I fast twice a week and
give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax
collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look
up to heaven,
but beat his breast and
said,
'God, have mercy on me,
a sinner.'
"I tell you that
this man, rather than the other,
went home justified before
God.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and he who humbles himself
will be exalted."
Jesus
aimed this parabolic teaching at men who were “confident in their own
righteousness.” He set the negative
example on the Pharisee who considered himself to be a
good man—good because of who he was, good because of what he had not done, and
good because of what he had done. The
Pharisees (or Hebrew: Purushim) were a movement of
devout Jews who were attempting to apply the high standards of ritualistic and
moral purity meant for the Priests and Levites of the Temple to the ordinary
Jews. It has been said that if Yahweh gave
the Hebrews a total of 613 laws at Mount Sinai, the Pharisees proceeded to
build “hedge laws” around each laws to add an additional 2,000 laws around
those 613 laws. Even though the
Aristocracy class of Sadducees dominated the religious leadership of
Israel/Judea at the time, the Pharisees were a powerful force. Tax collectors were, on the other hand, a
despised class of near-traitors who made their living by ‘skimming off the top’
(theft) of the tax money they were taking from Jews and handing over the Roman
overlords.
Romans 3
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness
of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who
believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the
redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a
propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins
previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at
the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has
faith in Jesus. 27 Where
then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?
Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
And
of course the answer is “It is excluded.”
There is no room for the sinner to boast before God. If a human were asked by God to impress Him,
it is clear that obedience to “the Law” doesn’t get the job done.
Galatians 6
13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the
law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your
flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the
world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new
creation.
Philippians 3
Finally,
my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same
things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs,
those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision,
we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the
flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks
he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the
people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to
the law, a Pharisee; as for
zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss
for the sake of Christ. What
is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
Here
confidence, faith, glory, reliance, hope, and boast are all interchangeable.
Ephesians 2
For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
1st
Corinthians 1
Brothers,
think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human
standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world
to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the
strong. He chose the lowly things of this
world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things
that are, so that no one
may boast before him. It is
because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from
God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the
Lord.”
Romans
4
What
then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works,
he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham
believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are not
credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked,
his faith is credited as righteousness. . . . Therefore, the promise
comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all
Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who
are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have
made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of
God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things
that are not as though they were.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of
many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring
be.” Without weakening in his faith, he
faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred
years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but
was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that
God had power to do what he had promised.
This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were
written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit
righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for
our justification.
2
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
One
in Christ
11
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called
“uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in
the body by the hands of men)— 12 remember that at that time you were
separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the
covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the
barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law
with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one
new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile
both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their
hostility. 17 He came and preached peace
to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the
Father by one Spirit.
19
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with
God’s people and members of God’s household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ
Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
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