Can I Be Good Enough to Go to Heaven?

Over half of believers in America believe you can earn your way into heaven by doing good things. Works-based faith can be easy for people, especially kids, to grab onto. Kids are told all the time to “be good.” Often their acceptance at school or at home is based on their behavior. It is easy for kids to believe that is how God also accepts them. Because we know kids (and adults) tend to lean that way, it is important to be careful with the words we use Avoid phrases such as, “It makes God sad when you are mean to your friends” or “You will make God happy if you clean your room.” We do not want to communicate that God will love a kid more or less because of their actions. In this week’s Brite lesson, kids will learn the only way to go to heaven is to be born again through the grace of God.

Here’s how you can discuss this topic at home: 

Discuss: What are good things people do to try to make God happy?

Discuss: What have you heard people say about what we need to do to go to heaven?

Discuss: What does God have to say about that?

Say: People may try all kinds of good things in hopes of earning their way to heaven. The Bible tells us that even the good things we do are like dirty rags compared to God’s holiness (Isaiah 64:6). But the good news is, we don’t have to earn our way into heaven, and we don’t have to do anything to earn God’s love. Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. When we believe in Him and trust in Him as our Savior, He forgives our sin and makes us new. We then do good things to honor Him and live His way—not to try to make Him happy enough to let us into heaven. God loves us so much that He provided us a way to be with Him forever, even though He knew we could never be good enough on our own.