No Works Necessary. Faith Only

So recently someone very close to me expressed concern over their destination after they die, or when the rapture happens. Whichever comes first. I asked why they thought they might go to Hell and their response was that they felt as though they were not good enough, not nice enough to other people even. They said that they have mean thoughts about others and just don't feel like they are a very caring individual. Their feeling is that since they struggle with this, that they find it difficult to be caring to others or even keep the negative thoughts out, that they don't see how Jesus can love them and let them into Heaven. This broke my heart so badly. I tried to tell them that how they are viewing Christianity, Heaven, salvation, God,...the whole thing, just isn't right. If you ever feel the same way as this person, please read on. I have good news for you about who Jesus is and what he has ACTUALLY done for us.

Although we as Christians are called to love each other, everyone, even the non-believers, it is not a requirement for Heaven. The checklist to get in is actually very short. A very important thing is on their, but really, there is only one condition. It isn't that we do so many good deeds, or give X amount of money to charity, or attend church Y amount of times per month, or even that we read our Bible Z amount of times. The only thing that we have to do to spend eternity with our Father in Heaven is to accept what he has already done for us. "What is Hunter talking about?" What I am talking about is when God came down to Earth in the flesh and did miraculous things for us simply because he loves us. "Well what did he do?" He came down as a baby, a king, but still, just a little baby boy. He grew up teaching the truth about who God is and how he wants us to live, in the process casting out beliefs and practices that are not what he envisioned for his people (for instance, one of these is that salvation is a works based process aka that we have to earn our way into heaven by doing good deeds or attending church or performing rituals.) In the end, the real purpose for Jesus being here was to be persecuted by everyone, hated even, to be killed on a cross, and then here's the real awesome part, RISE AGAIN! "Why would he do that?" Well he did that because it is what we sinners deserve to happen to us. Because all of us are like the friend I described to start this post, we all suck at being nice, we all fail to love others, we all are jerks to not just our enemies, but our friends at times as well. We are all sinners. Because of our sin, we all deserved to die the death Christ died. Knowing this, out of his love for us Jesus essentially said "I love you too much to let this happen to you and keep you from spending eternity in paradise with me and our Father. So here, let me take it for ALL of you." That is exactly what happened, in his death, he paid for EVERY SINGLE one of our sins. Not just mine, not just yours, not just the really bad ones or just the little ones. EVERY sin has been paid for and forgiven.

However, you have to believe it and accept that he did that for you. Unfortunately for the non-believers, they have a problem with where they are at now since they don't accept the gift we have been given. Their sins are still forgiven, Jesus didn't die in vain, but they just don't receive the reward of eternal life in paradise. But for those of us who do believe it, even when it is hard to do so, we get the prize. And trust me, even for the most rock firm Christians, its hard to understand how this is possible. It doesn't make sense from the mortal sense that we don't have to earn eternal life in paradise. That is not comprehensible from the standpoint of our human minds. Our nature says that anything you get, is something you earned. Prime example is Christmas. We grow up saying, if you are naughty, Santa won't bring you gifts. Gifts by definition though are things we receive without doing anything to earn them. Salvation is a gift from God. We don't earn it. We get it from God because he loves us just as we get gifts on Christmas morning because our parents love us. Even though we are bad, they still love us and want to give us things just because of love.

Now, I am not saying we should forget about doing nice things for other people and serving them and loving them in every way we possibly can. We are called to live as Christ lived too. The point is that, even in trying to be the best we can be, we are going to fail. We are human. We are not Jesus. That's why Jesus rocks. He was like "Hey, its ok you're not perfect, I am and I will cover for you. Come hang out with me in Heaven and I will introduce you to the guy who created the ENTIRE universe and loves you more than you will ever understand."

The love of God is unfair. Fortunately for us, its unfair in a way that benefits us. We gain literally everything out of this unfair thing called "grace." Just remember, even though you should try your best to do good things and be nice to others and love and serve them, if you fail at that, that is not what will keep you from your Father. The mere fact that you recognize your short comings and feel remorse about it is a step in repentance and THAT is what leads you to Heaven. For the person that I talked about at first, if you are reading this, I have told you already, but the fact that you realize that you need to change this about yourself and you want to, that is a step towards Heaven. God loves you, so do I and so many other people. Keep praying and working towards loving others better and I will see you in paradise when our Earthly missions are over. You may think you don't love people well, but you do a much better job at it than you give yourself credit for. I pray for this person, and for all of you, that you find peace with your failures and shortcomings that they are covered, paid for, forgiven and forgotten about by the only one who matters and as long as we accept that gift, we will get to personally thank Him one day.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is NOT your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8-9