Dear Friends,
Last week I received a letter in response to a note I had sent to a
friend who had just lost his sister. My friend was extolling the life his
sister had led, and how she had been such a help to so many, especially those
going through cancer, the very disease that ultimately took her own life. In
closing his e-mail, he had typed these words, “No doubt she is with the Lord.
If she isn’t, not much hope for me.”
The inference of my friend seemed clear. If my works were limited
in comparison to hers, there wasn’t much hope for me.
But what my friend didn't know was that earth is not a
workshop where we hope the works we produce will be sufficient to unlock
the doorway to heaven. Our final heavenly grade is not based on the quantity
and quality of our good works.
So many people I meet worry about whether they have done enough to
secure them eternal life. They live with uncertain hope about their final
destination.
But the Bible doesn’t speak about hoping we get to heaven; it
talks about knowing how we get to heaven.
Nothing could be clearer than the words of 1 John 5:11-12
which tells us, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and
this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the
Son of God does not have life.” And here is the clincher, John
says. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Yes, you can be absolutely certain of eternal life. But keep in
mind that your assurance of heaven has nothing to do with how you
‘behaved’ on earth but what I have ‘believed’ on earth.
The question some are asking is "have I done enough good
works to ‘save me a spot,’ in heaven. The answer to that question is no for you
can never do enough good works to earn your way into heaven, for the only good
work you can do has already been done for you on the cross of Calvary.
Religion is spelled do. Christianity is spelled done. When Jesus
uttered those final words on the cross, “It is finished,” your salvation was
purchased and accomplished and all that was left for you to do was to accept
it.
The secret to heaven in not found in trying, but in trusting, not
in doing, but in being- being in right relationship with the only One who
can save you.
Paul writes in Titus 3:5, it is “not by works of righteousness, which
we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing
of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
And in Ephesians he reminds us, “For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not
by works, so that no one can boast.”
Our good works will never save us, for the only good work that can
save us is the good work Jesus did for you and me upon the cross.
Our salvation and eternal life can never be purchased by the
things we do, but only through believing in the thing He has done.
You can be sure you are going to heaven. It is as simple as
ABC. Accept what Jesus did for you on the cross, Believe that
Jesus saved you from your sin, and Confess that Jesus is your Lord and
Savior.
And if you have any questions about how valuable all your good
works are, take a peek at Isaiah 64:6.
Yours in faith and friendship,
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