Who gets into Heaven?
Jesus answered, “I AM the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know My Father and have seen My Father.” John 14: 6 – 7
The question of who gets into heaven or who doesn’t is one of the most popular theological questions now days. There are as many opinions as the number of people we have in this world. From what I have seen, I am convinced that many people out there do have deep longings to get into heaven and want to make sure that other people get into heaven as well. If people did not believe or care about heaven, people would not even bother questioning such thing. God who loves us made the whole process of getting into heaven very easy to understand that even little children can understand it.
According to the Bible, the key to get into heaven is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. According to John 3:35-36, “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in the Son’s hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on that person.” The most well known Bible verse would be John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s One and only Son, that whoever believes in the Son shall not perish but have eternal life.” Of course, the Son of God refers to Jesus. These Bible verses tell us that if we believe in Jesus, we receive the eternal life, the heaven. To believe in Jesus means to believe that Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus died on the cross for our sins then resurrected in third day; Jesus will come again to judge the world according to God’s will at the end. As I long to go to heaven, I certainly received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and do my best to live according to the Word of God and Jesus. Bible clearly tells us in John 14:23-24, “Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves Me, that person will obey My teaching – The one who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.”
I understand that there are many people out there who long to go to heaven yet they absolutely refuse to go through Jesus. They want to skip Jesus part altogether. This is how I feel about those people. Here is an example. There was a generous wealthy person who prepared a fabulous Broadway Show with an amazing reception afterwards and invited absolutely everybody to come and see. The wealthy person told the people, “All you have to do is to buy a ticket to get in. Without a ticket, no one would be able to get in to enjoy the show. However, I have already paid for all the tickets. All you have to do is to wait on the line in front of the ticket box to pick up the ticket then come in through the Main Entrance. We will repeat the show numerous times so that no one will miss any part of the show. Everything has been prepared for you ahead of time. Everybody, come and enjoy!” Some people are more than happy to wait on the line to get the tickets. They gratefully and gladly follow the instruction of the wealthy person even if it means to take time to wait in the line to get the tickets.
However, there are other people who absolutely refuse to follow the instruction given to them saying, “Hey, if you are so generous and loving, why should we have to wait on the line or do anything? You say the tickets are free, yet you make us work by forcing us to stand in the line to get the tickets? Come on! Is this a joke? If you are really that generous, we should not have to wait at all. No matter when we get here and the waiting line may be a mile long, we should be able to pass through all these people and walk straight into the Main Entrance.” Some others are saying, “Hey, I lived a good life. I’m a good person. I totally deserve this. I should be able to walk right through that Main Entrance without doing any extra work.” Others are saying, “By the way, why should we have to walk through the main entrance? Even though we jump or break through the side walls, we should be able to go enjoy the show and the reception. You call yourself a generous person, yet you dare to try to make us work in any way? Shame on you! We will set up the rules here. We will call the shots, certainly not you. If you are that generous, you would let us do whatever we want without a question.” Finally, another person says, “If you are truly generous, you would not let any of us here to miss the show and the reception no matter what we do or say. You would certainly let all of us in even though we kill somebody in the process of getting in, or show no respect to you whatsoever, or even when we don’t listen to anything you say, or do anything to upset you or hurt you. Why? It is simply because you are the generous wealthy person!”
This is what I do not understand. If a person truly and desperately wants to get into heaven, why would that person refuse to do what needs to be done in order to get in? I have seen people saving up money for many years to buy a car, to go on a vacation, to buy a house, or to pay for their education. When people are more than willing to work hard for a goal that they have set in mind, why is it so hard for them to simply accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior in order to get into heaven? People argue and complain about the unfairness of God’s love. God’s love is clearly expressed in the fact that the invitation to heaven has been extended to absolutely everybody regardless of whom they are or where they have come from. Jesus proved that love by willingly dying on the cross to carry all our sins. All we have to do is to ask Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and accept who Jesus is and do what Jesus says. Yet people complain saying, “Why should we even bother asking for forgiveness? We should receive forgiveness even without asking. We should be able to get into heaven no matter what we do or say with or without Jesus, if God is truly that loving.” Who is unfair here? Certainly not God!
Another thing that puzzles me is that in every aspect of our earthly lives, we expect rewards or consequences for our actions. We expect to gain money or knowledge when we work hard. When we do something wrong, we expect to be punished somehow whether driving on the road, at the workplace, at home, at school, wherever we may be. However, according to some people’s understanding, God does not have any right to be anything that is not loving or pleasant. God should not dare get upset about anything, especially with us. The Bible tells us that God is the Potter and we are the clay. The Potter has right to do whatever Potter desires with everything the Potter creates. God is our Creator. Doesn’t God have the right to do anything God desires with what God has created as the Potter does? Potter certainly does not take orders from his/her own creation. Same with God! We, human beings, try so hard to tell God what to do and how to run the world. We cannot forget that God is God and we are God’s creations living under God’s mercy. In dealing with human beings, I simply thank God for who God is!
Pastor Hae Rin
