How Do I Get to Heaven?

How Do I Get to Heaven?
John R. Petrilli

If you’ve ever taken a long trip you’re aware of the importance of careful planning. Choosing the best routes and correct exits ahead of time can prevent a lot of uncertainty, mistakes, and frustration. Solid planning before you hit the road is the key to reaching your destination. What is true in road travel is also true in our journey down the road of life. There are really only two roads that we can travel on through life and into eternity. The destinations of these two roads are clearly distinct and have totally opposite outcomes. One ends in eternal death, while the other leads to eternal life. So just how do we get on that right road that leads to eternal life? God has given us a Road Map to Heaven, which provides the following trip tick.

WE DON’T GET TO HEAVEN BY BEING “GOOD ENOUGH”.

“Not by any good deeds of our own, but because God was merciful He saved us.” (Titus 3:5)

Before we find out the right way to get to Heaven it’s important to explode a number of long-standing myths on the subject. The first and most prevailing one is that we get to Heaven by our good behavior. This error dominates most of the world’s religions. It sets up God as a cosmic school teacher who grades our performance. If we score high enough through the good deeds we’ve done, we get promoted to Heaven. If our bad deeds outweigh our good ones, we fail and go to hell. The only problem with this is that it’s not about what we do or don’t do. It’s about what God has already done for us. It’s about our inborn bent to disobey God, and our need to be changed from the inside out. So what we do or don’t do has nothing whatsoever to do with getting to Heaven.

WE DON”T GET TO HEAVEN BY ENGAGING IN RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES.

“Knowing the correct password - saying ‘Master, Master’, for instance- isn’t going to get you anywhere with Me. I can see it now – at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to Me and saying, ‘Master we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking’. And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use Me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress Me one bit. You’re out of here!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23, Message)

This has to be, without question, one of the most unusual sections of the entire Sermon on the Mount. The topic of Heaven came up and Jesus’, in signature fashion, shocked the audience. He was stressing the necessity of a truly changed life that was evidenced in obedience to God’s will. Apparently there were those who engaged in religious activities who didn’t have a personal relationship with Christ. Jesus Himself declares that He never knew them. The fact that they did all those marvelous things didn’t matter at all when it came to their eternal destiny. They would be cast out of God’s presence because they had failed to put their faith in Jesus. No religious activities, no matter how impressive or faithfully observed, will EVER substitute for trusting Christ for salvation.

WE DON’T GET TO HEAVEN AUTOMATICALLY WHEN WE DIE.

“Everyone must die once. After a person dies, he is judged.” (Hebrews 9:27, Everyday Bible)

We’ve heard it so many times at funerals and cemeteries. Well-meaning survivors and friends try to comfort one another with the words, “they are in a better place.” At the risk of appearing insensitive, such assurances are often false and misplaced. While we’d like to hope that a departed loved one is now in Heaven, this may not be the case at all. God is love, yes. But He’s also just and holy. Heaven is not accessible to just anyone. Our sin comes between us and God, and unless we’ve accepted Jesus’ death as payment for our sin, we’re stuck holding that unpaid bill. The moment a person dies their spirit meets God face to face. A determination is then made. If they’ve placed their lives under the shed blood of Jesus, they enter Heaven. If not, they are transferred to hell. This is so plainly taught in God’s Word it can’t be missed. While God is not willing that any should miss Heaven, He’s also bound by His holiness and righteousness to keep out all who have rejected His Son.

WE GET TO HEAVEN BY WAY OF A PERSON.

“I’m on My way (back to Heaven) to get a room ready for you. I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live.” Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where You’re going. How do You expect us to know the road?” “I am the road (to Heaven). No one gets to the Father apart from Me.” (John 14:1-6, Message)

An eight-year-old girl once asked a pastor how she could get to Heaven. He replied, “You cannot get there by yourself. You need a Savior to forgive your sins and, when you die, to send His angels to carry your soul up to Heaven. There is a Savior. His name is Jesus, and He Himself tells us that if we believe in Him, He will give us eternal life. He will give us a ticket to Heaven. All we can or need to do is believe Him and believe in Him. What do we believe? That Jesus is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead after His death for us. All who believe this and confess it openly are saved.”

During a special holiday supper, the topic of Jesus impending departure came up. Peter expressed his desire to immediately follow Jesus to Heaven, but he didn’t have the timing quite right. Jesus first had to die and rise to open the way to Heaven before Peter or anyone else could follow Him there. When Jesus began to explain the long range plan to build a home for them in Heaven, the disciples were at a complete loss. They seemed to be clueless about Heaven, much less the way to get there. Countless millions have been in the disciples’ shoes. No other person, place, or thing can open the door to Heaven. “Only Jesus has the power to save! His name is the only one in all the world that can save anyone.” (Acts 4:12)

WE GET TO HEAVEN BY WAY OF THE CROSS.

“I am the Door. If any man enters in by Me, he will be saved. I came so that they may have real and eternal life. I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd gives up His life for the sheep. I give up My life for My sheep.” (John 10:7-15)

In Jesus’ day the economy was agrarian. People lived off of the land and its cattle. Sheep were a valuable commodity. Animals provided milk, meat and clothing, and wealth was largely determined by the number of herds one owned. Jesus borrows from the pastoral imagery of a shepherd and his sheep to convey the kind of caring relationship He desires to have with us. A shepherd was everything to the sheep. Caretaker, guide, veterinarian, protector. Whatever was a concern for the sheep was a concern for the shepherd, no matter how small or large. Here Jesus likens Himself to a gateway in a sheepfold. As the door, He provides access to everything His sheep will ever want or need. He does so by giving His life for the sheep. That gift came at the cross, where He died the death penalty that our sins deserved. His death opened the door to Heaven. “That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of other’s sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all – was put to death and then made alive- to bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18, Message)

WE GET TO HEAVEN BY RECEIVING THE FREE GIFT OF SALVATION.

“God’s gift is real life, eternal life delivered by Jesus, our Master.”(Romans 6:23, Message)

Imagine someone has discovered the cure for cancer. Now imagine that you’ve been diagnosed with this fatal disease. The fact that you’ll die is a given, it’s just a matter of time. Next, suppose you possess both the means and the opportunity to secure the newly found cure. You know you have the disease, you can afford the cure, and the cure is within reach. What would you do? Why, of course, you would secure the medicine and get cured! But what if, for some strange reason, you declined to receive the medicine? What if you determined that you’d try to find some other way to rid yourself of the cancer? What if you rejected the cure already available? Sounds incredibly foolish doesn’t it? Yet, that is what so many do with salvation. Although it is a free gift, they try to earn it. Our sins have been paid for in full…already! That’s all we have to do to get to Heaven is to receive that payment on our behalf. Jesus’ shed blood cleanses every one of our sins! “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) “God gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5) Will you receive the gift of salvation? It’s the only ticket into Heaven my friend, so I so hope that you do!

WE GET TO HEAVEN BY TAKING THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED.

“Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. But the gate to life is narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, CEV)

In Robert Frost’s classic poem, “The Road Less Traveled”, the subject tells how he came to a fork in the road and chose the path that was less worn, less traveled. His decision turned out to be the right one, for taking that pathway made all the difference. Jesus used similar imagery to convey the profound choice that faces each of us. He states that there are two pathways into eternity. One leads to eternal life, the other leads to eternal death. The choice we make will make all the difference … for all eternity. The vast majority of folks choose the easier road. Only a comparative handful select the more difficult path of repentance and faith. I find it amazing that God would entrust such a monumental decision to us. In a very real sense, God never sends anyone to hell. People choose hell for themselves by rejecting the only One Who can spare them, Jesus as their Savior. It’s an awesome decision, but a correct choice gets us to Heaven! Choose carefully! Choose wisely!