My wife and I are blessed to be able to facilitate one of the small groups at our church on the topic of Heaven from a DVD series by Randy Alcorn. I thought I would blog about Heaven and some of what I’ve learned each week. My hope is that you might be intrigued enough to learn more about Heaven too. I mean, we should probably know a little something about the place where we want to spend an eternity.
Paradise!
There are as many views and opinions of what heaven looks like as there are people on the planet! The Bible teaches that it is a place free from sin, free from pain, free from misery, free from all the things that are wrong with the world. It’s a place so magnificently beautiful that we are unable to comprehend its glory. Simply put, it’s Paradise. What a great place to spend eternity! I think if you ask most people you know where are going to go after they die they’ll reply, “Heaven.” And I bet that if you then ask them why they think they are going to Heaven, they’ll reply something to the effect of them being a good person or that they believe in God.
“By default”
In the DVD, Randy Alcorn teaches that people have the default belief that they are going to Heaven. People believe they are born with a Heavenly destiny and as long as they don’t murder people or commit crimes, then they are headed to Heaven after they die. But consider that the Bible teaches us that man is born with a sin-nature. People are born into sin. Sin is what separates people from God. Heaven, is God’s dwelling place and devoid of sin. It cannot exist there. Therefore the sinful man’s default destiny is actually hell (separated from God) and not Heaven. Kind of depressing, huh? So, how does one get into Heaven?
Perhaps I can live a life free of sin…
Q. How about if you just lead a good clean life? A life without sin? Sort of a 10 Commandment kind of thing. That will surely earn you a spot in Heaven, right?
A. Well, that’s a nice thought, but impossible to accomplish. For this to be a path to salvation, then sin would need to be ranked. Sins would have to be listed as worse or better than another. Then at what level of sin could you still commit and make it into Heaven? What about compounding sin, would that stack up? Would 5 semi-bad sins equal one really bad one? How much sin is too much sin? The Bible teaches that all sin is sin. It is equal. It serves one and only one purpose, to separate God’s people from God Himself. Have you ever had a lustful thought? Ever said anything bad about another person? Ever lied? Ever cursed God? Ever rebelled against your parents? Ever ignored someone in need that you had the ability to help? Ever gossip? Ever wished harm on someone else? Ever taken revenge on someone? According to Jesus, these are all sins! The 6th Commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill”, Jesus says that when you speak bad about someone, you are in effect murdering them with words. The 7th Commandment says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. Jesus says that even thinking lustful thoughts about another person is adultery. Get the picture?
Perhaps I can do good things to earn my spot…
Q. Maybe you can’t be as good as Jesus, but how about just being a pretty good person? Surely God will show favor to good people. Those that try really hard, are good people, give to charity and say their prayers every day. God, who is forgiving will let those people in Heaven, right?
A. Well, that’s a nice thought too, but impossible to accomplish. If salvation could be earned through good deeds, then how would the magnitude of those deeds be measured? How good is good enough? To determine your level of “good”, you’d need to be measured against something. for example, If you want to be the best in a sport, then your performance would need to be compared with the performance of someone considered the best at that sport and anything less is failure. The team that wins the Super Bowl is the best, all others failed to reach that goal. The Olympian who wins the gold medal is the best, all others failed to reach that goal. So in considering how good you are, you must then compare yourself with the person who lived the best, most clean life. By this logic, you’d need your life to be measured against the life Jesus lead! In doing so, you’d always fall short and therefore a failure and not going to Heaven.
Ok, so now what?
Q. Now I’m depressed because it seems like I’m destined for hell, what can I do?!?
A. Wait! There is hope for you! This is where Jesus steps in. He was the only truly sinless man and He took it upon Himself to become the last sacrifice. By His dying on the cross, and rising from the dead we no longer need to try to be good enough to earn our place in Heaven. We only need to accept God’s grace and His free gift of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. This gift is given freely by God to those who believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and that He is the son of God for which salvation is achieved. A person needs to accept God’s gift of salvation in their hearts. And in doing so, a person will change from the inside out. There will be fruit (meaning good deeds or works) from that person’s acceptance of Jesus as Lord. You will let God guide your life and your path. These deeds are done out of the love of Jesus rather than by trying to earn points for salvation. Once you give your life to Jesus, your focus will change from earthly accomplishments to living to expand God’s Kingdom on Earth so that none will perish and that all will have eternal life with Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the light, no one comes to the father except through me.” He is the path.
Consider this
I had a chat with my friend a few weeks ago about Salvation and we were discussing the story when Jesus was on the cross with two criminals also being crucified with him from Luke 23: 39-43 “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The second criminal believed in God (Don’t you fear God) and acknowledged who Jesus was and asked forgiveness (remember me when you come into your kingdom). He admitted he was guilty (we are punished justly). Jesus knew the criminal’s heart and granted him grace and salvation (Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.) As you can see, the criminal did not earn his salvation from doing good deeds. In fact, he had done bad deeds which lead to his death sentence. It took Jesus Himself to save this criminal.
God is forgiving to all asking for forgiveness and accepts His Son as their Savior and Lord.
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