My Feb. 15 column, “The Granddaddy of All Spiritual Deceptions,” discussed the spiritual peril of relying on your personal merits to get you into Heaven when you die.
That’s because you do not naturally possess the wherewithal WITHIN YOURSELF to generate the kind of meritorious works that will please God.
In Isaiah 64:6, the prophet Isaiah bluntly described our fatal flaws this way:
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our wrongdoings, like the wind, take us away.”
And then there are those biblical passages that unequivocally assert that, before God, we are all “helpless,” “still sinners,” and “ungodly?” See Romans 5:6-10. Case closed.
This DIY brand of “salvation” reveals the delusional attitude that we can get to Heaven while still staying in charge of the process, still running the show, as though we are doing God a favor by being there — “Hey look at me!” Trouble is, in a glory contest between God and man, man ALWAYS loses.
Remember, the original sin of Adam and Eve was their insistence on their “right” to self-determination, their desire to be “their own gods.”
Fortunately for them, they eventually “got the message” and returned to their Creator/God, after a brief but catastrophic dalliance with the enemy of their souls.
Their restoration required “coming out of the bushes,” and fessing up to what they had done. The word is repentance.
In a 2020 column I wrote:
“Repentance is as much an attitude as an action, calling for brokenness, surrender, transparency. The journey begins when we agree to live our lives dependent upon God, rather than independently from Him. (Such people) maintain a “holy self-despair,” marked by reliance on God and a willingness to quickly “come clean” when necessary, as described in Isaiah 30:14-16:
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.
But you were not willing.”
The real “gotcha” here is that it requires taking a good look in the mirror.
Evangelist Oswald Chambers wrote:
“When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility.”
The light at the end of that “tunnel of repentance” is Jesus Christ Himself, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it” — as written in John 1:4-5.
He saw your “sin problem” before you did and He did something about it, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” — as written in John 1:29.”
You can’t do this on your own.
That brings us to your need for a Savior, an Advocate, an Intercessor who took up your case 2,000 years ago and stands ready to represent you before the bar of Cosmic Justice, IF you agree to His terms, as explained in Matthew 7:13-14:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
To illustrate: Look at the entrance to Heaven as a door that is narrow, admitting only one person at a time (that’s you); the door is also very low, requiring entrants to get on their spiritual hands and knees and humbly enter.
No one gets away with proudly strutting into heaven accompanied by a cheering crowd of their fellow “religious types.”
True repentance is very personal and must come from a broken and contrite heart. The posture is humble, broken, surrendered and sorry.
Bring your demerits, your sins, and God will be all ears.
How About You?
Divorce lawyers and counselors will attest to the fact that the hardest two words for humans to utter are “I’m sorry.” But it all starts there with God.
Next week we’ll look at what Christ did to make your salvation possible and why it is such an insult to His grace when you attempt to offer your “good” works as a substitute.
“The world’s biggest lie is that being a good person will lead to eternity in heaven.
Today, transfer your trust from being a good person to Christ’s work on the cross.
Your eternity depends on it.”
— Bill MacDonald