One of the claims of the present age is that good people deserve to go to heaven. Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa and Pope Francis were “good” people and deserve to stand alongside God in heaven.

Is this right? What does the Bible say?

On one occasion, a rich young ruler approaches Jesus and says, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ immediate response is, “Why do you call me good?”

Here, Jesus is questioning the man’s assumption that any human can be good, relative to God. Of course, alongside a perfect, faultless God, none of us can claim parity.

Next, there is the awesome power of the creator. The Bible asks Job: “Where were you when the foundations of the earth were laid?” Then there is the philosophical problem that if we are deserving of God, we have a hold over him to deliver what we are owed.

For all these reasons, Jesus reminds the rich ruler, “No one is good — except God.”

So, are we ever able to approach God in heaven? Are we ever able to stand alongside him? The answer is, in our own strength, no. None of us, not even Nobel Prize winners like Mother Teresa, are deserving of God and heaven.

However, there is good news. God has found a way — and that way is through the life, death and resurrection of someone who was blameless, all-powerful and perfect.

Just as Jesus rose from death to life, so too can we if we are united to him. But the way of doing this is through the cross. The cross was not only for Jesus; it is for us too.

We need to die to our old ways of greed, pride and selfishness, and become a new creation. The Bible says if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. We need to accept and believe in Jesus’ love for us, and respond accordingly.

Mother Teresa never believed she was good or deserving of God, but she knew the one who could make her good and deserving — and she loved him.

She once wrote: “Love for Jesus in the Eucharist, love for Jesus in prayer, love for Jesus in our sisters and love for Jesus in the poorest of the poor. Nothing else.”