Getting Into Heaven!

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine about getting into heaven. He was telling me about a friend of his who was in my friends opinion a "saint". There is no way that his friend was not getting into heaven because of the kind of person he was. My friend was telling me about how hard his friend worked. Provided for his family. Helped out at church and was very generous in their giving, of both money and time. As he was talking, I stood there shaking my head a little at what I was hearing. He finally asked my why I was shaking my head. I told him "dude, it doesn't work that way." "You can't work or give your way into heaven." I told him that you can do everything right according to our human way, but this is what God's word says.

Romans 3:23 New Living Translation (NLT)
²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

That's right. We are all still sinners. Until we get to heaven to spend eternity with our Lord and Savior, we will still sin and fall short of God's standard for us.

Romans 6:23 New Living Translation (NLT)
²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Aren't you glad that God doesn't give us what we deserve, but He gives us grace, which is enough!

Ephesians 2:8-9 New Living Translation (NLT)
⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

We can't earn our salvation. It is a free gift from God. All we have to do is accept it. People will try to talk a good game to get on the good side of The Lord but,

Matthew 7:21 Living Bible (TLB)
²¹ “Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in heaven.

Jesus wants us to repent and turn from our sins. Accept Him as our personal savior.

Mark 1:15 New Living Translation (NLT)
¹⁵ “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

So I explained all of this to my friend. Telling him there is only one way to get to heaven and none of it involves what he does on his own.