“Don’t be strutting up to God in Heaven with a pocketful of your own works like you own the place.”

In my column last week, we discussed the biblical imperative that all of us are sinners (born of Adam and heirs to his fallen nature) and therefore would never qualify for heaven on our own.

So now what? What am I supposed to do with this information?

The Way Up Is Always Down

It sounds paradoxical, but in the Kingdom of Heaven things are often the reverse of the ways of the world.

This is especially true when approaching God. He is not impressed with our religious works or our self-generated attempts to reach Him on our own.

It starts with this attitude: I am sorry for my sins, for trying to live life without God, and I want to be made clean and whole by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Test yourself: Do you sense remorse or regret for the effects of your sins on God, yourself, other people?

If given the chance, would you want to live differently? To be made clean, and given the power to live right?

The late Christian philosopher Dallas Willard, in his book, Renovation of the Heart, wisely observed:

“To prosecutors and judges in our court system, as well as to people in ordinary situations in life, it still matters greatly whether wrongdoers show signs of remorse or seem to be truly sorry for what they have done.

“Why is that? It is because genuine remorse tells us something very deep about the individual. The person who can harm others and feel no remorse is indeed, a different kind of person from the one who is sorry. There is little hope for genuine change in one who is without remorse, without the anguish of regret.

“… There is little sense of woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)

“Yet, without this realization of our utter ruin and without the genuine revising and redirecting of our lives, which that bitter realization naturally gives rise to, no clear path to inner transformation can be found. It is psychologically and spiritually impossible. We will steadfastly remain on the throne of our universe, so far as we are concerned, perhaps trying to ‘use a little God’ here and there.”

Watch Out

A common misrepresentation of the gospel is that it requires repentance as a necessary condition of salvation.

In this context, repentance is widely understood to be a turning away from sin and “turning over a new leaf” toward God as evidenced by a changed life, pre-salvation.

How is a person who has yet to receive the Holy Spirit and the accompanying power to live a righteous life supposed to live the “Christian life?”

In his sermon “What Is the Gospel?” theologian and pastor Harry Ironside observed:

“The Gospel is not a call to repentance, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed.”

Do not make the mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a more perfect way than you have been doing in the past.

All of that takes the focus off Jesus and onto you.

Ironside continued:

“Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.

“To believe that the Gospel calls men to live the Christ-life in their own natural power is the height of folly. The Gospel is a message about Christ, not you. It is about his vicarious atonement, his offering himself as a ransom, and in so doing, providing payment for our sins, and making peace between man and an offended God.” 

How About You?

It is a fact, we are all believers — in something — either we believe the Christian message of salvation is about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or not.

If not, then what? “Fingers crossed,” hoping for the best, denial that God exists, your own exemplary life lived on earth, religious liturgy, church membership, giving money to charity, being “good” to others, etc.?

You believe in something, like it or not. Just remember, this lottery is for the eternal destiny of your everlasting soul.

Bet wisely.

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Click here for a fascinating AI-generated video overview of this essay.