Some people think that, at the end of this life, God will weigh their good deeds against their bad deeds; their hope is that their good would outweigh their bad, and that would grant them entrance into heaven. There are others who don’t believe in God and think they will cease to exist when they die.
Both of
these beliefs are wrong. Nobody is going to be weighing anything, and besides, waiting until the end to find
out if you qualify for heaven is very risky. What if you don’t qualify when
that time comes? Would you go to hell for all eternity? Isn’t it better to know
without a doubt you are going to heaven before that end comes?
And for
those who think death ends it all, they will be very surprised to discover that
they were incorrect, but will be unable to do anything about it. Those who
believe there is no God as well as those who believe their good deeds will get
them into heaven will both end up in the same undesirable place.
God is love,
but He also hates sin; out of His love flow both grace and justice. But what
are grace and justice? Grace is
defined as God’s free and unmerited favor toward sinful humanity. Justice is the administration of law
that determines what is right, based on principles of equity and correctness,
and rewards accordingly.
The Bible
says every single person is a sinner because we’ve all inherited a sinful nature
from our original parents, Adam and Eve: “When Adam sinned, sin entered the
world. Adam’s sin brought death to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Romans
5:12). Since God hates sin (He is holy), He has to respond to it by separating
Himself from us, which is the punishment His justice requires.
Out of His
love for us, He provided a substitute, Jesus Christ, to take on our punishment to
satisfy His justice. That process made grace available to us so that our sins
can be forgiven. However, forgiveness is not automatic. In order to be
forgiven, the person must acknowledge sin, repent, and plead for forgiveness.
God then forgives on the basis of His grace. If a person never asks for
forgiveness, he has by default elected to pay for his own sins through
separation from God.
The
Scriptures describe grace and justice like this: “The wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans
6:23). God’s grace allows us to be forgiven to gain eternal life. On the other
hand, if we don’t accept God’s grace, God’s justice will prevail, and the end
result will be death—eternal separation from God after this life in hell.
To those who
think their good deeds will come to their rescue, the Scriptures say, “God
saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this;
it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things you have
done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9). If anyone got into
heaven based on how much good they’d done, the world would never hear the end
of their boasting. God took care of that. No boasting! If you want to go to
heaven, repent of your sins and ask God for forgiveness through His Son Jesus
Christ who died in the place of sinners.
There are
others who think there are other ways of getting into heaven. To those people,
the Scriptures say, “I {Jesus} am the way, the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father {God} except through me” (John 14:6). This is very clear
and straightforward; believe in the name of the Lord Jesus and you will be
saved; do anything else, and you will not be saved!
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