My answer may surprise you — but no, you haven’t been good enough to go to heaven, and neither have I. The reason is simple: God’s standard is perfection — and none of us is perfect. The Bible puts it this way: “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).

In other words, God doesn’t take our good deeds and our bad deeds and weigh them on a scale, testing to see if we have more good deeds than bad deeds. God is absolutely pure and holy, and even one sin — just one — would be enough to keep us from His presence. This is why we can’t depend on our own goodness to win us a place in heaven — because we’ll never be good enough.

Does this mean no one can go to heaven? That would be true — if we had to depend on ourselves and our goodness. But God loves us, and He has opened up another way for us — and that way is Christ. He was without sin — but on the cross all our sins were transferred to Him, and He took upon Himself the judgment we deserve. Because of Him, we can be forgiven!

Don’t let another day go by without Christ, but by faith turn to Him and trust Him alone for your salvation. The Bible’s promise is for you: “In him (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).