So Why Should God Let You Into His Heaven?

That is a question all of us need to think about? Most of us have some kind of reason why we believe heaven is going to be the place of our eternal destiny. So what is yours? God should let me in because...

Sincerity is one reason people present. I am very sincere in my beliefs and I think that God will appreciate how hard I have tried to be good or kind or helpful to other people, and faithful to what I believe. However, we all know that sincerity doesn't always please the other person. There is the bank robber who is very sincere in his line of work as he steals the money. Or there is the husband who sincerely loving his wife buys her a big screen TV for their anniversary so "they" can watch Monday Night Football together. He might be sincere, but the love is more for himself than her. No, sincerity will not work because doing what is sincere does not always merit favor. Besides, God is perfect and he commands us to be perfect like he is.

Other people like to compare themselves with others and argue that while they are not the best, at least they are not the worst. They are no Hitler, or Unibomber. Besides, God must grade on some kind of curve, doesn't he?

But think for a moment of the magnitude of our sin. Let us say that we only sinned three times a day. How many times is that in a year? Over 1,000. How many is that in a lifetime of seventy years? Over 70,000!! Three sins doesn't seem so bad. But 70,000!!

Put it in some other terms. What if I had 70,000 parking tickets and the police finally arrested me and brought me to trial? What do you think the judge is going to do? At the least, take away my license, and give me a huge fine! But here I am before the judge, and I tell the judge that I had parked in this state over 100,000 other times and had done it legally, putting money in the meter, whatever. What do you think the judge is going to say? Will he say, That's great, you can go free. No way. The judgment will stay the same. Might even get a little worse because I still do not see the magnitude of my offense. But then I tell the judge that I have a friend who has over 200,000 parking violations. Do you think the judge will now let me go free? No way!! I must pay for the violations.

Neither is God the righteous judge of all the earth impressed with the number of good things we have done, nor the number of people who are far worse than we. No amount of good things that we do, even religious things can ever pay the penalty for the violations, the sins of our lives. The price must be paid. God is holy and just and he will not allow the wicked to go free.

Besides, no amount of good deeds can ever change what is really wrong with me, which is my heart. When I do good things, I do it to merit favor with God, or others, or myself. All of those are selfish reasons. Even our good deeds are tainted by our sin so that even our best efforts and intentions fall short of God's holy character. Instead, of helping my case before God, they just compound my situation and make it worse.