4 Things You Need To Know About How To Get To Heaven

Who gets to go to Heaven and who has to suffer in Hell forever?  Who ultimately gets to decide and what are the criteria for figuring it all out?

Where do the good people go and where do the bad people go?  And what does a person need to do or believe or understand in order to please God enough so He’ll give you Heaven, rather than what you deserve?

Are there any unforgivable sins? In other words, if a person ever commits murder, are they automatically banned from Heaven…forever?

What about liars and thieves and tax evaders and drug dealers and child molesters and jay-walkers and pastors and priests and nuns and…oh, yeah…what about that innocent native running through the jungle in a leafy loin cloth who has never heard about Jesus?  What happens to that guy?

Although most people don’t think about this subject(s) regularly—or ever!—it really is one of the most important questions around.  What do I have to do in order to get into Heaven?

How Big Is God’s Scale?

Some people believe that God has a gigantic spiritual scale and that He puts your good deeds on one side and your bad deeds on the other and whichever side weighs the most….that’s where you’ll end up.

It sounds nice and fair and tidy, but is it true?

No, it is not true.  God doesn’t have an “eternity scale” that He uses to judge people by their deeds.  Actually, He has something much better!

What God uses, instead, is His only begotten Son.  A person’s eternity is based solely upon their relationship with His Son.  If the Son of God (Jesus Christ) “knows” you, then you’ll be in Heaven.  If Jesus “never knew” you, then you’ll end up in Hell.

Here’s what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 about the matter:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

So you see, the things and deeds and words that we say and do in this life don’t earn us salvation.  I suppose a better way to say it is that our deeds earn us Hell while our relationship with Jesus can wipe away the debt and secure eternal life for us.

So How Does A Person Get Right With God?

The things we do in this life are most certainly critical to our eternity, but the deeds done in this life will only do two things, ultimately:

1. Determine the severity of the Hell a person will endure forevermore
2. Determine the reward we receive by God, in addition to already having received Heaven

There most certainly are things that need to be “done” in order to be saved, however.  For example, the Scripture says that a person must “repent” and “believe” in Jesus Christ alone.  The debate continues on as to whether or not these things are a “work” that we do or if they are a “gift” that God freely gives (or both of these combined, somehow), but they are, nevertheless, required.

In essence, here are four things the Bible teaches about how a person gets to Heaven…which is just another way of saying: salvation.

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1. Salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, through His sacrificial death, and is neither merited nor secured, in part or in whole, by any virtue, work, or achievement of man (John 1:12; Romans 9:16; 11:6; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-10; Titus 3:5-7; 1 Peter 1:18-19).
2. The sole ground of salvation is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24-25; Hebrews 9:26; 10:10-14).
3. Salvation is the result of being justified by grace alone, through repentant faith alone, which is a faith that trusts in Jesus Christ alone and is authenticated by a life of turning away from sin toward God (Mark 1:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 20:21), in Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone.
4. Genuine believers will reveal and exhibit the spiritual fruit of a changed life, in both word, thought, and deed, which is the enduring proof we have in this life demonstrating the legitimacy of our faith (Matt 13:8, 23; John 15:8; Gal 5:22-23).

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QUESTION: What do you think about this list?  Did I miss anything or have I added something I shouldn’t have?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

* Photo credit: Jasmic (Creative Commons)