“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
We need to remember that we live in a post-Christian era, which means many of our neighbors have never heard the above verse. The truth is a lot of the people we see every day think that if you live a good life, you’ll go to heaven when you die.
I ran across a website the other day that proves my point. The owners of the site, www.ticket2heaven.com, will sell you a ticket to heaven for $15. If you’re foolish enough to buy one, you’re added to the website’s registry and will receive in the mail one “Ticket to Heaven” along with a genuine Certificate of Authenticity. I guess that means that your name has been added to the Cyberspace’s Book of Life.
The website is a sad commentary on just how much humanism has contaminated Christian, and even non-Christian thinking. It teems with the message that man can save himself by what he does and how he lives. “So many different religions and other spiritual teachings claim to lead to the same destination, whether that place is ‘Heaven’ or ‘ever lasting life’ or ‘salvation’,” the website’s owners wrote. “We believe that each uses different terms to explain a universal concept: that you make your way to Heaven by living a good and pure life and by applying your faith and beliefs on a daily basis. This concept has proven itself easier said than done.”
Now here comes the clincher: “Regardless of your religion, your personal commitment is necessary to live a life that honors your beliefs. Don’t be afraid to make a statement of your commitment and let it serve as a constant reminder of what it takes to live a life worthy of your ascension to Heaven.”
If there is ever a case where the means doesn’t justify the ends, this is it. While Christians are also expected to “work out their own salvation” by living a good and decent life, our ticket to heaven comes from knowing Jesus rather than thinking that we could earn our way in by the lifestyle we choose to live. That’s exactly what Isaiah meant when he said, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6) In short, living a good life has nothing to do with whether we get in to heaven.
There’s not a better time than now to show and tell the world that there’s only one ticket to heaven and where you can find it. “Enter by the narrow gate,” Jesus once said. “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it…Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
There are few who find the “narrow gate” because there are so very few Christians today who are willing to point the way out for them. We leave that up to the preacher or deacon, never stopping to think that many of those we see every day don’t go to church on Sunday, or any other day of the week. Do you think God will hold us accountable for all those missed opportunities?
The Ticket to Heaven website highlights that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Strange isn’t it? Just about all of us have heard that saying. Yet many of those right around us have never heard how we can really be assured of a ticket to heaven: “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
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