God Detests Religion
Andy Stanley said: “Jesus taught that good people do not go to heaven. Furthermore, he taught that God was intent on not giving people what they deserved.”
God has given us exactly what we do not deserve—Jesus Christ, His Son. And Jesus taught against religion. His message was a departure from anything that had ever been taught. His contrary teaching caused the Jewish religious leaders to have him crucified. Then on the cross He conversed with one of the thieves, and after the thief expressed faith in Christ as Messiah, Christ announced: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” This good for nothing thief would close his eyes in death, only to open them in paradise.
Jesus promised people what they did not deserve. To those religious do-gooders, He denied entrance through the pearly gates. Jesus was not the God of “the good people.”
Jesus rejected human good all his public life. Jesus rejected Adam and the woman’s garments of fig leaves (the first act of human good) in the Garden of Eden, when He made coats of skin (perhaps sheepskin) and covered their nakedness.
Jesus always proclaimed a different message—salvation by faith, not works (John 3:16). Jesus radically taught against religion and religious people and offered a different way to the kingdom—believe.