What Right Have You to Enter Heaven?

Every man and woman who has ever lived will have to answer that question. A woman who had just experienced a death in her family said she felt such an urgency to share Christ with someone that when a repairman came in to fix the furnace she backed him up against the wall and said, "If that furnace had blown up in your face and you had died, would you know for certain where you would spend eternity?" The repairman was so startled he forgot to leave a bill.

Why do some people believe they have a paid ticket to heaven? They give many answers, but most can be classified within three basic attitudes. The first is, "Just look at what I've done on earth. My record is pretty good, compared to some. I'll be in heaven because I lived such a good life." That person is in trouble. The Bible says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) So if we were placing our good deeds on a scale of 1 to 10, even a perfect 10 wouldn't make it. No one can ever live a life that is "good enough." The Bible says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10).

The second answer might be, "I really don't know, and I'm not sure that I care. I gave it some thought for a while, but there were so many other things that seemed more important." As mothers say, "Excuses will get you nowhere." The Bible says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).

Only one answer will give a person the certain privilege, the joy, of entering heaven. "Because I have believed in Jesus Christ and accepted Him as my Savior. He is the One sitting; at the right hand of God and interceding for me." No one can deny that Christian his entrance into heaven.

The Heidelberg Catechism, originally written in 1563, is used by Christians of many backgrounds. The first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism reads:

Q: What is your only comfort, in life and death?
A: That I belong - body and soul, in life and death - not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?
Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life -
is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us"
(Romans 8:33,34).

What a magnificent thought! Jesus is our advocate, our lawyer, pleading our case before God the Father, telling Him that the person being presented for entrance into heaven must be admitted on the basis of God's grace alone, not by any good works or noble deeds done on earth.

Satan deceives many people into thinking that God is a vengeful taskmaster, ready to send to hell all those who offend Him. They can see no hope. True, God does hate sin, but He loves the sinner. Since we are all sinners, our only right for admission to heaven lies in the provision God made for our sins: His Son, Jesus Christ.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life"
(John 3:16). 



Our Patient Merciful God
The Bible and the Gospel speak of God's great mercy for us ...

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