Getting Into Heaven

Everyone has a standard for who they will allow into their house. This standard is usually the same for most people, someone can come into your house as long as they are a respectable person, who you know has not done anything seriously wrong. Many people also apply that same standard to getting into heaven.

But since heaven is God’s house, shouldn’t we find out His standards for entry?

We assume that anyone who lives a good life, not cheating on their spouse or not commiting murder, should be allowed into heaven. We think this way because it is the standard that we apply to ourselves. So God uses our standards too….Right?

Well, let’s think about it this way: if God is perfect, heaven is also perfect because that is where He dwells and in heaven we are in the presence of the perfect God. God’s standards are also perfect, including His standard of who He allows into heaven. What is God’s perfect standards to get into the perfect presence of God?

Perfection.

You see, to us who are good, being good is a good enough standard for who we hang out with. We base our standards on ourselves. God also bases his standards of who He hangs out with on Himself, and He says “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

That puts a real damper on things. I bet you are thinking to yourself, “Wait a minute, are you telling me that God expects me to be absolutely perfect, and if I am not, I cannot get into heaven?”

It is not the easiest or most joyful thing to believe, but yes, that is what the perfect God of the universe expects from us.

Wait, don’t go yet, there is one more thing that I have not mentioned yet. God, being perfect and everything, knows that there is no way for us to reach His standards. So, being the merciful God that He is, He made a way out for us.

Sin has a price, and that price is pretty steep. The price is death, but not just physical death; a spiritual death, too. So when we sin, we are to pay that with our lives, but if we do, then we cannot spend eternity with God, for to be spiritually dead means to be absent from God. So how is it that anyone could make it into heaven?

In order for us to go to heaven without paying that price, someone else has to do it. Not just anyone. I could die to save you, but my death would not even pay for all of my sins, that would still leave you with your own debt to pay.

The only way for someone else to pay your debt is for that person to not have any debt of their own.

This is where Jesus comes in.

God knows that no man can meet the perfect standard that He expects, but that only a man can pay the price. For God to pull this off, He would have to come down and be a man himself.

Jesus came by birth from a virgin, so He was not born fully from Man, if He would have been then He could not be perfect, but He was still a man. He went through everything that you and I had to go through, from poopy diapers and potty training all the way to adulthood and even His own death.

Jesus maintained His perfection so that when He died, it was your sin and mine that He payed for. His resurrrection from the dead was proof that death could not hold Him.

Now, when you stand before God waiting to be let into Heaven, will you need to still pay for your sins, or will Jesus stand up and say, “No Father, I paid for this man’s sin already, and He accepted my gift.”

The price has already been paid, and the gift has been given. The only thing left is for you to accept that gift.

“Yet now God in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.

For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.

We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificng His life for us.

God was being entirely fair and just when He did not punish those who sinned in former times. And He is entirely fair and just in this present time when He declares sinners to be right in His sight because they believe in Jesus.”
-Romans 3:24-26

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to my Father except through Me.”
-John 14:6

“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
-Romans 10:9

You have everything that you need to accept this gift, just confess it openly before Jesus right now and your debt will be paid.