How do I get to heaven?

How do we get to heaven? That is the question for today. When you listen to different people's opinions, you hear many different views.

The Bible says “love your neighbor”. So, when I do good to others, I fulfill the law. When I am good, I therefore follow Jesus, who set an example for us.

However, the Bible also says (James 2:10): “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” And who of us can say that he, on his own, is able to keep the whole law?

Others believe that baptism purifies us from our sins. So, when we are baptized we go to heaven, because it is written in the Bible (Mark 16:16) “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”.

But, when you continue reading the verse you find: “but he that believeth not shall be damned.” And even if the baptism was able to purify us – our life and our sins continue thereafter.

Thus, is it faith in God who created us, faith in Jesus who came to earth as a human, and faith in the Holy Spirit who wants to live in us? Do we get to heaven through this belief?

And for a third time I must disappoint you. Even satan believes in the Creator. But, this belief will not save him any more than it would save us. That there is a God, to believe that, is only the foundation for salvation, and not the completion.

True faith, of which the New Testament speaks, is the faith in the crucified and risen Christ. I am only on the correct path when I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my own personal debt. On the cross, Jesus who was pure and sinless, took all the debt of the entire world upon Himself.

He tore up the promissory note which separates me from God. Only once I admit my guilt and present this torn promissory note to God, when I accept that Jesus died for my sins, only then am I truly saved.

Only this belief and nothing else can open my way into heaven. Everything else, such as the good works and the baptism are only good and useful accessories, but useless in itself. As long as my promissory note is not torn up, I am and remain an eternal lost sinner to God.

Have you accepted Jesus' sacrifice? Have you accepted it for yourself and presented it before the Father?

I wish you a blessed day in which you can live in freedom.

Rainer Gigerich