Electronically controlled security locks are on all exterior doors of our apartment block. Every one who lives in the block is given a small card which, when passed over an electronic eye, opens the door. Only that card will open the door, giving the maximum security possible against intruders.
If we were to try to gain entrance by passing a $100 bill in front of the eye, the door would remain locked. If we offered to do maintenance work to earn admittance, the building manager would think we were very foolish. If we told him we were honest people who helped others and were faithful church goers, he would probably say, “I don’t care who are you or what you are, only that card that we gave you will open that door!”
You would call us foolish if we thought our own ideas of how to enter would be effective - but wait a minute! Are you trying to get into Heaven by the same methods? Do you pay and pay again to have your sins forgiven? Do you work tirelessly to raise funds for church and charity, hoping that your good deeds will outweigh your bad? Are you trusting in your moral uprightness to find favour with God so that He will admit you to Heaven? If so, let me refer you to the Bible, which is God’s message to us. It is God’s Heaven, and He tells us how to get there.
As to paying our way, 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us that “. . . ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ.” The futility of trying to work our way to Heaven is expressed in Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”
An upright life is commendable, but Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Jesus said, “I am the way . . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). The shedding of Jesus Christ’s blood on the cross will open the door of Heaven to all who put their trust in Him alone.
The Lord Jesus promised all who trust in Him “maximum security” when He said, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John 10:28). Trust Him today. If you neglect or reject Him, you will be outside of Heaven for all eternity in the place “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). The choice is yours.
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin.
He only can unlock the gate
Of Heaven and let us in.
