HOW GOOD DO YOU HAVE TO BE
TO GET TO HEAVEN?
Will God accept sincerity? Will God accept you if you do
the best you can and lead a good "Christian" life? Can you get to
heaven if, from this day forward, you serve the Lord? Anyone who reads the
Bible knows that the answer to those questions must be an emphatic
"No!" "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight" (Rom. 4:20). The
very best righteousness a sinful man can produce is not sufficient for God's
acceptance. It is written, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away"(Isa. 64:6). It is not
possible for any of us to please the Lord. It is not possible for any of us to
do anything that is good and acceptable before God. The Holy, Just, and Perfect
God demands absolute perfection. GOD CANNOT AND WILL NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING
LESS THAN PERFECTION. He says, "It shall be perfect to be
accepted"(Lev. 22:21). He says,
"Be ye holy; for I am holy" (I Pet. 1:16).
Our Lord Jesus Christ will sit in judgment over men, and all will perish of
whom he says, "I have not found thy works perfect before God" (Rev.
3:2). IN ORDER TO GET TO HEAVEN YOU MUST BE AS GOOD AS GOD, PERFECT IN ALL
THINGS, PERFECT IN HEART, PERFECT IN THOUGHT, PERFECT IN WORKS, PERFECTLY HOLY!
Yet no man is perfect. We are all sinful. We are all corrupt. Is there
therefore no hope? Must we all perish forever?
No! Blessed be the Lord our
God, he has found a way to make fallen, sinful men like us perfect, perfectly
holy, perfectly accepted. EVERY PERSON WHO IS IN CHRIST IS PERFECT IN HIM. At
the last day, in the day of judgment, if you are united to Christ by faith, he
will "present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his
sight" (Col, 1:22,28). "Ye are COMPLETE in him"(Col. 2:10). This
is the final result of Christ's redeeming work. "Christ loved the church,
and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish" (Eph. 5:25,27).
NOW THIS PERFECTION IS NOT
THE RESULT OF ANYTHING IN US, OR ANYTHING DONE BY US, IT IS ENTIRELY THE WORK
OF GOD'S FREE-GRACE IN CHRIST. Just as the Lord God took our sins and
imputed them to Christ, making him to be sin for us, even so he has taken
Christ's righteousness, his perfect righteousness, and imputed it to us who
believe, MAKING US TO BE THE VERY RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM. By the
shedding of his blood at Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ
has put away our sins, so that the law of God can no longer charge us with sin.
"He was manifested to take away our sins," and he has done it,
"and in him is no sin" (I John 3:5). And that perfect life of
obedience to the Father's law and the Father's will, which he lived as our
Representative, has been imputed to every believing sinner, so that NOW WE
ARE PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST.
In thy Surety thou art free,
His dear hands were pierced for
thee;
With His spotless garments on,
WE'RE AS HOLY AS GOD'S OWN
SON!
WOULD YOU BE MADE PERFECTLY
WHOLE AND HOLY? Take your sins and your righteousnesses and pile them up as
a heap of rubbish to be burned. Your supposed righteousness is just as
worthless and loathsome in the sight of God as your sin. TRUST CHRIST ALONE
FOR ALL THINGS. Trust his blood to cleanse you from all sin. And trust his
righteousness for all your acceptance with God. TRUST
CHRIST ALONE!