How do you get to heaven?

This is a question that people have pondered since the days of ancient time. I am sure that you have asked yourself the same question as we all sometimes think on our own mortality, especially when we go to funerals or hear of someone who has passed away.

Let me ask you this one question. If you were to die today and found yourself standing before a Holy and Righteous God and He were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" What would your answer be?

We ask ourselves, "Is there a heaven? If there is, how do I get there?" I have found that when I ask someone that question, I generally get one of three different answers:

I really don't care

If this is your response, then I would beg you to consider this. Listen to your heart beating within your chest and take a deep breath of air and realize that you are not guaranteed your next heart beat or your next breath.

You are only one heartbeat from eternity, one heartbeat from the end of your life. What do you think happens after you die? Do you cease to exist or does life go on? If life goes on, is there a heaven and a hell? And is there a God who can send you to either place? If there is, can you afford to be wrong and chance spending eternity in the wrong place?

If I have caught your attention, then please read on.

By living a good life

If this is your response, then you have one thing working in your favor, you believe in God. But let me say this…it is good to believe in God, even Satan does and trembles at the very thought of Him. But is living a good life really enough? You may think to yourself, "I keep the Ten Commandments, I don't steal, I haven't murdered anyone, I try not to lie, I haven't committed adultery, I guess I am ok and God would have to let me in. After all, He loves me too much to send me to hell!"

To find the answer, we need to look into God's Word, The Bible. For within the pages of the Bible, are the answers to every aspect of life. It also lets us know who God is, how He thinks, and how He deals with us, His creation.

The answer to the question of living a good life, we look at Isaiah 64:6 which says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." What does this mean?

Our righteousness is all of the good things about us. This includes how we act, how we speak, and how we think, in other words, the absolute best we have to offer to God as living a good life. We think that doing good things will counteract the bad things that we do. Is that what you believe?
The other important words in this scripture have to do with "filthy rags". To get the true gist of what is being said here we need to look into the original Greek and capture the true meaning of the words them selves.

1. Rags: The word is "beged" (behg'-ed), which is a covering, such as clothing; apparel, garment, lap, rag, raiment, robe… I think you get the picture.

2. Filthy: The word is "ed" (ayd), which is the menstrual flux, or the blood from a woman's period.

Please forgive me for being so graphic as it is important to drive this point home. But when we put them together, you will find that the absolute best you have to offer God from your life He sees as a jacket soaked in menstrual blood! Not a pretty picture!

The Bible also says in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death…" And to this you might say, "I don't sin." Again the Bible says in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" This means that everyone, all of us, including you and me, have sinned and are found guilty in God's eyes. And if we are found guilty in God's eyes because of our sins, He has but one choice and that is to judge our sin and cast into hell for eternity! You say, "God loves me too much to send me to hell!" Yes! God does love you because He is a loving God. However, He is also a just God and will not break His own laws. And being just, He will give us exactly what we deserve!

Going back to the question earlier, if God were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" What would your answer be? At this point, if you said, "I lived a good life" or "I went to church on Christmas and Easter" or "My parents went to church" or "I used to feed the homeless" or … well,, you get the idea. If you were to answer with a like answer, you would hear the dreaded and awful words, "Depart from me you worker of iniquity for I never knew you!"

So, what do we do? If we can not please God in any way due to our own merits, what hope do we have? Are we doomed to spend eternity in hell? Read on and I think you will find the answer and good news!

By trusting in Jesus Christ

This is the final and correct response to the question, "How do you get to heaven?" Although some people think that all roads lead to heaven, the truth is there is only way to get to heaven, through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 says, "Jesus said…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Why Jesus? Let's take a look.

We established above that everyone, no one excluded, has sinned and because of our sin, we fall short of the requirements for getting into heaven. We also saw that the wages of our sin is death. We have also established that our righteousness, or our attempts to satisfy God's requirements for sins, is but filthy rags before Him. So how can we be saved? If we can not pay for our sins, then who can? How can our sins be blotted out?

In Leviticus 17:11, it says "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the souls." This means that, since sin causes death, and the blood is the life of the flesh (no one can live without blood), then God has provided atonement, or a way to have our sins forgiven, through the shedding of innocent blood.

The innocent blood that was required by God was that of a spotless, firstborn lamb. The lamb would be killed and its blood would then be applied to "The Mercy Seat" which was in the temple in Jerusalem. In doing so, God would forgive the person offering the sacrifice of all of their sins. But the wonderful thing about it is that when God forgave them of the sin, He would no longer remember them!

Today, we do not sacrifice animals anymore because God provided for us the ultimate sacrifice, His only begotten son, Jesus. His son became the spotless lamb that was required for the blood atonement. His son became the payment for our sins. His son paid the price that we would have paid for our sin, one time for all sin throughout all time. It was God's word that determined how sin would be dealt with and it was God's word that provided payment for all sin, and that final word was "Jesus."

When Jesus came into this world 2000 years ago, he was born of a virgin in a manger with other animals, a fitting place for a lamb to be born. He then lived a perfect life, without sin, living as one of us, walking this earth for 33 years. He is the only person that has ever walked this earth that was without sin. He was the only one that could live a sinless life, the only one who had the ability to do it, because He was not only man, but God as well.

At the age of 33, of his own free will, Jesus was turned over to evil men who beat him, humiliated him, and crucified him by nailing him to the cross. This may seem like a cruel thing but it was all in God's plan so that He could re-united with us, His creation. While Jesus was on the cross, several things happened.

Jesus became sin for us, not that he sinned, but that he became the sin itself. This was done so that he could take the sin of everyone, past, present and future, upon himself. When this was done, The Father turned His back on His Son Jesus because He could not look upon the sin. This is why Jesus cried out, "Father, why have you forsaken me!"

Then God took all the punishment for all of the sin of the world, including the sin of every person that ever lived, every person that was alive then, and every person that would or will live in the future, including you and me, and placed it firmly upon the back of His Son, Jesus.

Once the wrath of God had been fulfilled, Jesus cried out, "IT IS FINISHED!" and then died. This is an important point because he made a statement that people today have a hard time understanding. When he said, "It is finished," he was saying that no sin, no where, at no time, by no one, any longer had to be paid for by death. All of the sin, every last one, leaving no rock unturned, was paid for upon that cross, once and for all. This means that we do not have to pay for them ourselves. You do not have to pay for your sins, not now, not ever, because Jesus already paid the price. Jesus covered them all at one time with his blood, the innocent blood of a spotless, firstborn lamb.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The point here is that God GAVE because God LOVED. God gave us Jesus His Son as the atonement for our sins. God gave YOU Jesus as the atonement for YOUR sins. I truly believe that while Jesus hung on that cross, he already knew who each and every one of us were and he called us out by name, saying, "I am doing this for you."

So why are we still trying to pay for our own sins? Why are we trying to get into heaven on our own efforts when all we have to do is trust in Jesus? Why are we still trying to figure it out?

We said earlier in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death…" but the second half of that verse says, "But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord." The operative words here are "free gift." That's right! It's a FREE gift! The forgiveness for our sins is FREE and it is a GIFT! A gift means you do not have to pay for it, it is freely given to you. All you have to do is believe and accept it.

Romans 10:9 says, "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." This means that all you have to do is believe it in your heart, not your head, and then confess it with your mouth, which is telling someone, and then you will be saved! It is as simple as that! There are no rituals to perform, there are no flaming hoops to jump through, there is nothing required other than believing and receiving. Let's put it this way. You have a sin headache, Jesus is the aspirin. The aspirin won't do anything for your headache unless you take it.

Now, in order for you to be forgiven, you must first repent from your sins. This means that you must change your attitude about the sin in your life and be willing to walk away from it. If you are doing drugs, you must be willing to put the down. If you are drinking, you must be willing to give it up. Whatever it is in your life that is counted as sin, you must be willing to give it up and change your life. I know this can be very difficult, but the creator of the universe, the very one who spoke everything in existence, is ready, willing and able to help you get through these things.

Repentance requires the willingness and the willingness requires admitting and recognizing that you are a sinner. Remember, all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God, all of us, including you.

If you are willing to walk away from your sin, if you are ready to be forgiven, if you are ready to allow God to save you, then now is the time to do it. It does not take a trip to church, it does not require the presence of anyone, it only requires you, God, who is already there, and a few moments of your time. Ask God, He is listening. You can do it right where you are. Just say this prayer, or one like it from your own heart.

Dear Jesus…

I come to you now, a sinner who needs your forgiving touch. Please forgive me of my sins and help me to walk away from the sins I am dealing with in my life.

I ask you now to come into my life, I now surrender my life and my heart to you and make you Lord of my life. Please save me, sanctify me and justify me. I accept your free gift of salvation.

I renounce any ties to witchcraft, Satanism and all other ties to the devil and I break any generational curses that may be on my life, and I do these things in the Name of Jesus.

Satan, I speak to you directly. You no longer have any control over my life. I renounce you and everything that has to do with you. I am now covered with the Blood of Jesus, I am a child of God and I no longer belong to you.

Thank you for giving your life for me.
Thank you for forgiving my sin.
Thank you for saving me today.

In the Name of Jesus I pray,
Amen!

That's it! If you prayed this from your heart, you just got saved! There is a party going on in heaven right now over you!

If you would like more information about what you just did, please email me and I will be more than happy to talk with you.

I hope you made to right choice after reading all this. The choice you make today will have eternal consequences either for the good, or the bad.

May God bless you and keep you.

Rev. Ron Williams