The Bottom Line, Ministries Christian News, Articles, & Poetry 
Recently a world leader stated, “ If I could get to heaven, one of the reasons would be to stop the war in Ukraine.” In saying that, he brought to the surface what many people believe, that it is necessary to do good deeds to earn a spot in heaven.
Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it very clear that works have nothing to do with getting to heaven. “For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one may boast.” Romans 5:15-17 mentions four times that salvation is a free gift. Eternal salvation is something a person can know for sure and the ‘if “does not depend upon what a person does. 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
This is the way to have confident assurance of getting to heaven. It is based on what Jesus has already done through His death for our sins and His resurrection which can be accepted by faith. When this is done, whether a person has lived a good life or has had an evil past, God in His grace and mercy, has justified and declared a person righteous before Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake, he made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God to our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:24 Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Here is a very insightful quote from writer, Paul David Tripp. “The work you do is never to be done in order to earn something. The work you’re called to do is to be done in celebration of something. You don’t work to earn God’s favor, Rather, your work is a hymn of thanks for the favor that Christ achieved on your behalf. You don’t have to wonder if you’ve worked enough. You don’t have to fear that you’ll mess up and get booted out of the family. You don’t have to fear seeing the back of God’s head. You don’t have to be haunted by the question of whether you’ve done enough for long enough. The bridge of impossibility has been walked by Christ. The job is done. Your relationship with God is eternally secure. Now in thankfulness go out and do his work.” *
The “if” is taken out of the equation of getting to heaven when a person accepts God‘s grace and provision. Only the righteous will get to heaven, but God will declare a person righteous when he or she accepts Jesus as the Savior. If we had to work our way to heaven, none of us would be there.
*Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies, Crossway Publishers, 2014, August 21 Devotional
AMEN
Wow – love this.
God Bless~
How foolish man takes getting into Heaven is about. Even when it is stated in the scriptures; mankind stumble over it.
Why is it that man thinks so highly of himself that somehow he can accomplish it in his own way..
In fact it seems that a Savior isn’t actually needed for some people as long as they believe that they are good or that it is a start up program which allows them to add their own twisted ideas on the subject and putting in their own efforts to arrive.
The fact that our Lord came to suffer greatly and took upon Himself our guilty deeds before dying on our behalf was an incredible achievement that cannot be replicated for the law demands a perfect holy life.that would stand in the gap.
Man has no control over an outcome. He attempts ways to make it turn out but has no control over the final results. It’s like taming the wind.