The Wednesday Word ~ 12 March, 2025 A.D.

 Trying to Get to Heaven

by D.G. Miles McKee

Here’s some good news, God is holy, perfect and righteous! Here’s some bad news … we are not!  Here’s even worse news, if ever we are to get to heaven and avoid God’s judgment, we must be just like Him (Leviticus 19:2).

But this is impossible! Not one of us comes close to being as righteous, perfect or holy as God. As Ecclesiastes 7:20 says,   “.. there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”

So how then can any of us get to Heaven? Let’s face it, under these terms no one is going to make it!  But the good news is, God Himself, knowing the helpless and hopeless mess we were in, came to earth and lived, died and rose again for us.

Christ Jesus went to the cross, took responsibility for our sins, and offered Himself as a sacrificial substitute for us.  There, at the cross, He poured out His blood and absorbed the wrath which our sins justly deserved. He was buried, rose again on the third day and after 40 days, bodily and visibly ascended into Heaven there to appear in the presence of God for us.

He now guarantees that He will save us completely and entirely (John 10:27-28).  Is this enough for you?

Now before you say, “Yeah I know all that” let me ask, have you any other scheme of getting to Heaven other than resting entirely on the doing and dying of Jesus? Is He enough? Or are you trying to supplement the work Christ did at the cross.  Are you trying to add something to the finished work? Maybe you would like to add something like your performance or your obedience as a Christian? Or are you resting on Christ alone? Do you build your hope on Christ alone? Is Jesus enough?

If you are trying to impress God with anything other than the shed blood of Jesus, give it up. Jesus is enough!  He does not need our contributions to equip our entry into Heaven! He is our qualification. He is enough. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. Are you satisfied with this?

Ebenezer Wooten an earnest but eccentric English evangelist of another generation once held meetings in a tent on the village green at Lidford Brook. The last service had been conducted, the crowd was leaving, and the evangelist was busy taking down the tent. A young fellow approached the preacher and rather casually asked, “Mr. Wooten, what must I do to be saved?”

“Too late!” said the evangelist, in a matter of fact way, as he glanced up at the inquirer. “You’re too late, my friend, way too late!”

This startled the young man causing him to quickly lose his apparent indifference. “Oh, don’t say that, Mr. Wooten! Surely it isn’t too late just because the meetings are over?”

“Yes, my friend,” answered the evangelist, looking the young man straight in the eye, “it’s too late! You want to know what you must DO to be saved, and I tell you that you’re hundreds of years too late! The work of salvation is done, completed, finished! It was finished on the cross; Jesus said so with the last breath that He drew! What more do you want?”

Then and there the truth dawned upon the young man. There was nothing for him to do! The Lord Jesus had perfected and finished the work of Salvation at the cross. That is, there was nothing for him to do but to accept the Saviour and His redemptive work as a gift. The person and work of Jesus was enough! Nothing needed to be added.

And that’s the Gospel Truth!