In last week’s column, we asked the question, “Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven?”

We responded that IT IS possible to know your eternal destination BEFORE you die without being presumptuous or prideful in the least — all directly from scripture.

That’s because your assurance is not based on anything YOU have done, or not done, but what Christ has done FOR you.

Now for another key question that could hypothetically be asked of you, if you were to die today and find yourself before God …

Question 2: If God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into My Heaven?” What would you say?

Sadly, most people tend to launch into a spiritual “PowerPoint presentation” describing all the good things they’ve done for God, the “good” life they’ve led, that they’re no better or worse than their fellow man, etc.

Without knowing it, they are in effect declaring themselves to be their own savior. But in God’s eyes, “their savior doesn’t amount to much,” as late Christian philosopher Dallas Willard once wrote.

Trouble is, all men, you and I included, happen to be part of “the problem,” which automatically disqualifies us from being part of “the solution.”

So, what is this “problem” that separates us from God? In a word, “sin.”

Now most of us think of sin as a list of all the bad things we’ve done, and while true, this is only part of the story.

The very presence of those sins we’ve committed throughout our lives suggests something deeper. That deeper thing is an inherited sin nature that can be traced all the way back to our forefather Adam.

While we may be able to temporarily change our behavior, that nature “thing” can’t be changed no matter how hard we try. Dogs bark, ducks quack, and sinners sin.

We need to be “fixed” spiritually through divine intervention, starting with our accepting God’s diagnosis of our problem. In his book Salvation, theologian Lewis Sperry Chafer wrote:

“Men are not said to be lost in the eyes of their fellowmen, or as measured by the standards of the institutions of the world. They are lost in the sight of a holy God … and under the conditions that exist and are effective in a larger sphere. In like manner, men are not saved by an adjustment to the estimates and conclusions of the limited world of fallen humanity, or by what seem to be reasonable or unreasonable … To be saved, one must see himself as God sees him, and adapt himself to the divine principles of another world, which principles have been faithfully recorded in the written Word.”

Any salvation plan that begins with YOU is doomed for one simple reason: YOU are the problem, which disqualifies you from playing any part in the solution. Period.

The one-and-only authentic “admission ticket” to Heaven, as written in 1 Peter 1:18-21:

“… knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

Bottom line: It is the blood of Jesus that is the only “spiritual currency” that “spends” in Heaven. His precious blood is the exclusive “coin of the realm,” signifying His life that was given in exchange for the lives of His own precious children — the blood of Christ plus nothing — not your good deeds, church attendance, commendable life lived, money tithed, services rendered, religious devotion, or any such thing.

Heaven’s “coin of the realm” outlined in Revelation 5:6-10:

“And I saw between the throne … a Lamb standing, as if slaughtered … the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb … And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God WITH YOUR BLOOD from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”

How About You?

To illustrate, suppose you were in a small boat being swept down a rapidly flowing river and you heard the terrifying sound of a massive waterfall around the next bend.

What to do? Grab the anchor and throw it into the opposite end of the boat? That would be silly.

The only sensible solution is to throw the anchor OUTSIDE THE BOAT to an immovable object on shore to be saved.

To insist on relying on your collection of personal merits/demerits to reach heaven is the same as moving the anchor around inside the boat (above). Your only chance of reaching heaven is to anchor your life to Christ — He will never move. Get it?