Your Most Important Answer

Here is a thoughtful well-written devotional by Sharon Borror that I'd like to share with you. She was, for many years, the assistant to the worship pastor of Blackhawk Ministries here in Fort Wayne; she has since moved to the Detroit area. Her faith is being tested and refined (in the sense of refining gold) by health issues. Enough preamble.

If God were to ask you why He should let you into His heaven, what would your answer be? Would you tell Him that basically you are a good person? Would you remind Him of some good deeds you did for people? What do you think God’s response to your answer would be? Would it be, “Sure, come on in. You are better than most people. Welcome to Heaven.” Guess what? The Bible says that God has a standard of perfection and only those who are sinless can enter Heaven.

You’re thinking, “Well, then no one will be allowed into Heaven, ever.” That would be true if it weren’t for one very important event in history. Because God loves us even though we are all sinners, He sent His one and only Son to this earth to experience life with us humans and then to die a horrible death on a cross and shed His blood for our sins. God the Father requires death for sin because of His holiness. He cannot have anything but holiness in His Heaven. Well, then, how do we get there?

Because Jesus Christ died for our sins, God says that if we trust in His death to be payment for our sins, we will be made holy once we die and meet our Maker. God will allow us entrance into His Heaven. We will no longer have the ability to sin in Heaven. Because Christ rose [three days] after his death … [we have] the assurance that we will have eternal life with Him if we are trusting in His sacrifice for us. True good works are a result of salvation, not a way to salvation.

The following verses tell about God’s plan of salvation. You can read them for yourself.

ROMANS 3:10-11 – “As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”

ROMANS 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

ROMANS 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

ROMANS 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

ROMANS 10:9-13 – “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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

EPHESIANS 2:8-9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (emphasis added)

awc 2006-08-13 18:35:27