The Entrance Exam for Heaven…

I think it would be a fair assumption that most people hope to get into heaven. Heaven being that place where we live with God forever. Yet, so many religions and creeds and dogmas exist, all with different entrance exam requirements. Some preach self-denial as a response to their “wicked” flesh. Others have extensive lists of things one cannot do in order to please God and subsequently publish a list of commandments which, if successfully navigated, would surely result in entree to the happy place. Some presume, based on nothing in particular, if your good outweighs your bad, you’re in. But, here’s a thing worth considering. Why would God make the entrance exam so difficult to pass if He loved people and desired to spend eternity with them? What if so many, many people were engaged in all sorts of compulsive activities in their quest to please God and it wasn’t something He required of them at all?  The problem with our thinking is that we endeavor to view heaven as a reward for doing all the right things, subjectively defined of course. They imagine the entrance requirements to get into heaven through their lens of an angry God generally unhappy with all mankind because of their sinful behavior and as such seeking to teach people a hard lesson with a litany of regulations generally defining most of what we enjoy as evil and promoting instead pain, misery, striving and struggle as prerequisites. In short, heaven is something or somewhere that must be earned and the cost is very high. But, what if I told you all of that wasn’t true? What if there was something behind all of this “religion” with it’s impossible to meet standards? What if getting into heaven had nothing at all to do with how good or bad you are, but rather by what you chose to believe? What if God actually made a way for anyone to get into heaven not by their own works, but by their belief in the sacrifice of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ? What if he is the way? Here is a cheat code that bypasses every possible test. Romans 10:9-10…

The issue with the above is in not understanding what God actually did for us, why He did it and how He did it. All of the works that men do to gain something from God can never work because all men (except 2) began their lives after the fall of man. Whether or not you are familiar, after being deceived by evil every person ever born was born with a sin nature in their blood. Every person except the Lord Jesus Christ. As such, God did not need people to work harder in an attempt to make their flesh into something spiritual. They could never make their sin stained blood clean on their own. The Apostle Paul said, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Yet here are the masses disciplining themselves and chastising themselves and whipping themselves in order to prove their flesh was good before God who already said it wasn’t good. Our flesh counts for nothing as far as heaven is concerned. All of this grand focus on sin, fears about sin, hyper-vigilance to avoid sin, and ever present feelings of guilt regarding sin were completely solved by God. God solved your sin problem for you (and me). You know why? Because we could never solve it on our own. Not from lack of effort, as you already know, but because we began life with sin in our bloodstream inherited from Adam, though some time removed. I hope you can see how big this is for you. You cannot remove the imperfection in your blood no matter how many glasses of wine you refuse. God solved our problem by giving us the first man since Adam with even the potential to live God’s Word perfectly. Jesus had no sin in his blood. When he fulfilled every aspect of the law; when he finished the work, his perfection would replace our imperfection simply by believing what God said He did. The just for the unjust. Once we believe and have His spirit inside, we can never be separated from Him again. Believing His Word and receiving His spirit inside is the cheat code for heaven. (Romans 10:9-10)

We live in what God calls the Grace administration. Grace is unmerited, unearned divine favor. Makes sense doesn’t it from God who desires intimacy and shared love with all men? He made it easy for us, can’t you see it? He knew we could never live up to His perfect standards with our corrupted flesh, so He made a way for us. Jesus Christ is the way and the only way. He is the entrance exam from which no test is required, only belief. “It is finished” is the end to all that maddening stuff you have been doing, out of fear, in order to get God to like you and maybe sneak you in. I’ll take it a step further. Anyone in any group at any church in any place in the world who tells you what works you must do to get into heaven, is not telling you the truth. We are saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast. This is the truth of the Word of God. You cannot clean yourself up well enough to deserve what God has freely given you. All of the flesh purification is a colossal waste of time. God said when Jesus was crucified, our sinful old nature was crucified with him. Crucified as in dead. Dead men cannot sin, at least as far as God is concerned. Does this mean we go commando and specialize in doing wrong? Of course not. The results of doing the wrong stuff never end well. Instead God made a way that would guarantee entrance to all men, as many as are willing to believe. That’s love my friends. That is God who knows all about you yet still desires a relationship with you. (smile) The entrance exam to get into heaven was never about you and me. It’s about making Jesus Lord in your life and believing God raised him from the dead. So simple. So very kind of God. I hope you choose the easy route. It cost our Lord his life. God desires your freewill love, not compulsion based on fear. Enter through the door whose name is above every name. Romans 10:9-10…

Just some good thoughts…