Someone told me a story about a woman going to heaven. It’s terrible theology… but it’s a funny story that’s worth repeating… also because it shows some people’s perception as to how we get to heaven.
This lady died and found herself at the pearly gates. She asked St. Peter, “What do I need to do to get in here?” He said, “Oh, that’s easy. All you’ve got to do is spell the word ‘love’.” Well, she did and she was admitted.
Sometime later she happened to be at the gates when Peter called out to her and asked her to watch the gates for him for a while because he had to attend to some business with an Archangel. He said, “You remember the drill, just spell the word ‘love’.” She hadn’t been there long when who should turn up but her husband. She asked, “How come you are here so soon.” He replied, “Well, about four weeks after you died I married your best friend, Cheryl; we cashed in your life insurance policy and bought a place at the Gold Coast and also a speed boat. Today I flipped the boat and got killed. So what do I need to do to get in here?” She said, “Oh, that’s easy. All you have to do is spell ‘Czechoslovakia’.”
It would be nice if all we had to do to get into heaven was spell the word ‘love’… or even ‘Czechoslovakia’. Reality is that in everyday conversation we talk about a highway to hell but a stairway to heaven. One is wide and the other narrow. Jesus made that point in the Sermon on the Mount: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
So why did Jesus say that the way to get into heaven is hard… via a narrow gate? Because of our pride! The truth is that the formula for getting into heaven is indeed profoundly simple. Not to spell the word ‘love’ but simply to put our trust in Jesus. He lived for us the perfect life that we will never live and He died on a cross to pay the penalty for wrongdoing that we deserve. And all we have to do is believe that Jesus is therefore our Saviour and our Lord.
The problem is that our pride prevents us from doing that. I’ve often had people say to me, “John, it can’t be that simple.” Yes it is. But our pride tells us that we have to deserve heaven. We have to do something, surely, to gain admission. And so we run with the mistaken idea that God is like a book-keeper, and that as long as our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds we’ll scrape in. Wrong! Heaven requires perfection – a perfection we don’t have! But Jesus has obtained that perfection for us as a gift – if only we will trust Him.
It’s on this point that Christianity differs from every other religion on the religious market-place. They all tell us what things we need to do to gain God’s favour. Pray much. Go on a pilgrimage. Do many good deeds. In contrast, Christianity says, Jesus has done it all… just trust Him for it. Of course doing good things should be part of our life; but now no longer as a way of scoring Brownie Points with God, rather as a way of expressing your gratitude that Jesus has done everything for you.
John Westendorp