The Good Place and How to Get There

Have you ever watched the TV show The Good Place?  I’m an avid watcher of many TV shows and movies.  I

actually have a channel on youtube called Rideout Reviews where I react to movies, TV shows, and even give Christian perspectives on them.  If you’d like to check that out click here. But in the show The Good Place (spoiler alerts ahead) we find out that our friends are not actually in heaven but are in hell (or at least a new version of it) and that no one has gone to heaven in a very long time.  The reason for this is because every deed that is done by us as humans is tainted.  It was incredible to see a TV show demonstrate this so well.  It’s funny, ironic, and cynical. What great traits in a show right! If you buy flowers for someone to comfort them in the loss of a family member, you put points on your good side.  However, because the flowers you bought come from a store that supports the conflict diamond exchange you put points on your bad side as well.  And the conflict diamond exchange is a bit worse verses how good it is buying flowers to comfort someone. So those bad points outweigh the good points by a large sum. 

This demonstrates well I think the idea that people have in regards to heaven.  Maybe we can balance the scales of our bad deeds by doing good.  But what complicates this even more is that today it seems we don’t even know what is considered good or bad.  There is no standard (that’s what happens when we try to separate God from everything). Things that are neutral when it comes to good or bad have a morality to them that it never should have had.  But when we do find that universal good it's already been tainted by someone or something.  

How do we find confidence in where our eternity will lie then?  That’s the big question. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that all have sinned and lack the glory which God had originally intended for them.  He also says that because of sin the wrath of God falls upon us.  That means that the sin that we have committed already disqualifies us from a relationship with God and life eternally with him.  So no matter how much good we possibly do, it will not balance the scales because it is not the good we do that disqualifies us, it's the bad.  

But Paul also writes in his letter to the Romans that God has demonstrated his love for us by dying for us despite these sins that we have committed against him. Paul also says that he does this because in this way he can be the one who does not overlook sin but can also be the one who abolishes it so that we can be seen as without it.  How wonderful is God and his love for us! 

If God has loved us and has done this for us the question remains how do we receive this wonderful gift?  We trust Jesus with our lives.  We believe that he has done this act of gracious, loving kindness. What does that mean to believe and trust that he has done this? What does that involve?  It involves first a confession of guilt to sin, then a turning from it.  Then it is trusting Jesus with how our lives should be lived, allowing him to dictate and command what goes on with it.  That is what it looks like to trust in Jesus and receive forgiveness of sin.  

It's so amazing what God has done in Jesus to restore the glory that we were intended to have! That’s the real good place, life in relationship with him. And it can only come through faith and trust in Jesus.  Without that everything we do will be tainted by the sin both ours and others.