Heaven is not a V.I.P club.

If good behavior is the way to salvation, then neither you nor me will ever set our foot in the Kingdom. Perhaps Gandhi... Oh, no wait, he also had what we would call racist opinions, and for most of his life thought that intermarriage between different Hindu castes hindered spiritual developement. I guess he's out then. How about Mother Theresa? Well, turns out she mismanaged the ecomony of her charity and gave most of it away rather than invest it in the hospitals of her religious order. Off with her too.

I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at. If we are saved through good works, then heaven will be pretty empty, because this being good thing? It's pretty hard. Being good is not about being a decent chap, it's about something far more radical. It's about loving God with all your heart and loving your fellow man as you love yourself. If being good is the standard which we are measured to, then we will surely fail. Except perhaps some of the saintliest saints, while us poor ordinary schlubs would continue to be damned.

But that's the thing, God didn't slip into skin and become one with humanity through Jesus Christ to create a V.I.P. club of salvation for the saints. No, he came to create a community for the lost, the average and the non-special, for the sinner, for those who try but fail, for the fool, for us. He came to forgive sins, not to create saints. And thank God for that. Thank God that he doesn't measure us up like a salesman and then discards us like broken goods whenever we don't measure up to the high standards of virtue.