Ali said to let them enter. He hugged the child, ate the gift of a Big Mac that the boy had brought Ali, and performed a magic trick for the young child.
"Today we found you," the old man said, "Tomorrow we can go home."
Ali gave them dinner and drove them back to their airport hotel. He embraced them both and told them to go with God. On the drive home, Kolb asked Ali why he had taken so much time for the two strangers. Ali explained that it was his belief that everyone had an angel watching them at all times, keep track of their actions and logging if they were good or bad. Ali called it a "Tallying Angel."
"When we die, he told Kolb, "if we've got more good marks than bad, we go to paradise. If we've got more bad marks, we go to hell . . . I've done a lot of bad things. Gotta keep doing good now. I wanna to to paradise."
Though the choice to do good versus evil is always an admirable decision, keeping score is a terrible way to live. And even if you kept meticulous records, the Bible says this, "“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10 MSG)
That sounds like it is impossible for us to even ascertain the correct scoreboard of our life, which leaves us guessing at our progress toward the most important question we will ever face, where will we spend eternity?
You see, as well intentioned as Muhammad Ali was in striving to attain eternity in paradise, the Bible is clear that it is impossible for man to work his way into heaven. Let me be perfectly clear, there is only way to Heaven and that is through Jesus Christ. "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
There is a story in the Bible about a rich young ruler who seeks an audience with Jesus Christ. The reason? To ask Him the greatest question of all, “What can I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus answered him by taking him through the foundation of his current worldview, and then exposing the issue with basing your eternity on your good deeds. Jesus tells the young man that, if he wishes to be perfect—a truly good person—he must sell all that he has and come follow Him.
Jesus perfectly diagnosed the man’s “lack”—his attachment to his wealth. He claimed to have kept all the commandments, but in reality he couldn’t even keep the first one, to have no other gods before the Lord! The young man pondered this request and then turned his back on Jesus and walked away. His god was his wealth, which he chose over Jesus.
Jesus then turns to His disciples to teach them a principle: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” This was shocking to the disciples, who held the common idea that riches were a sign of God’s blessing.
But Jesus points out the obstacle that riches often are, in their tendency to fuel self-sufficiency. His disciples then ask, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus answers by reminding the disciples that salvation is of God: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Who can be saved? If left up to man alone, no one!
But thankfully, our salvation is not based on our goodness but on Jesus’ goodness! If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romans 10:9). Salvation comes through Christ alone, and, like all true gifts, it is unearned. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
That is the Good News of the Gospel!
