All doctrines are from a Holy Book. Every Christian doctrine, including the false ones, has a Bible verse. “Making it to Heaven” is no different and by far, one of the most misunderstood concept.
The fear of sin, the fear of hell, and even the fear of God’s wrath never saved anybody. You didn’t save yourself in the first place so don’t think Christ has left it to you to “maintain” your salvation. If you fear “losing your salvation”, then you never understood what Christ did on the Cross.
Psalm 118:14 reads, “He has become my salvation”. It means salvation is not a thing. Salvation is a person. That person is Jesus, and as long as He lives in you and will never leave you nor forsake you, you have life. Salvation is not a possession; like a substance outside you like money you have. Christ is Salvation. And how seemingly impossible it is to lose Christ. No wonder the Gospel scares many Christians; because it’s too good to be true. It totally sets us free from even our own thinking. But no! We want religion, which is a prison.
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Christians are so stingy with Heaven. They think God is so stingy with Heaven that He doesn’t want just anybody to go there. In Jesus’ parables, it was common people in the streets that entered into the banquet, not the “chosen” ones. Some Christians even lowkey believe some people have been predestined to go to hell because they are not part of the “chosen”. Jesus didn’t save you to put into the “saved category”. It will really shock many Christians to know the kind of people in Heaven; that there are more people in Heaven than in hell. The prodigal son is still a son even if he’s eating pig’s food somewhere. It’s of no wonder at the end of the story, the second son was enjoying and the first born was sad.
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Nothing of God is earned. It is all a gift freely given. Once you think you can earn anything from God by what you do, you have missed the whole point of Grace. God’s awards super-exceeds His rewards. He has already blessed all men with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. And this gift of salvation was freely given to all humanity. Your self-righteous works does not make you worthy of going to Heaven. All men were forgiven on the Cross whether they themselves believe it or not. Their accepting is accepting what is already a fact.
When Paul told the Ephesian church to “live a life worthy of your calling”, he is not saying justify your salvation, he is simply saying we are not unworthy anymore so they should stop the false humility and live the God-life to the fullest.
The Bible does not even teach us about making it into Heaven. The whole point of life is not to die and go to heaven. That is not the main point. If your reason for doing good is to make Heaven one day, you don’t understand the Gospel. The Bible rather teaches us how to live life more abundantly. The Bible rather teaches us to love one another, live according to the Will of God and fulfill His purpose for us. Not so we could make it to Heaven. Focusing on making it to Heaven is totally different from focusing on Heaven. All religions believe in the former, but not true Christ-living. It comes as a shock?
Actually, just like the Jews awaiting the Messiah, many Christians pray “thy kingdom come” without knowing that the Kingdom is here, within us. (Luke 17:21). “Focus[ing] on things above” means living from Heaven towards earth. This is what victorious Christian living means.
“Making it to Heaven” means we are not there in the first place; which is contrary of the finished works of Christ that “seated us in heavenly places with Christ” and made us “citizen[s] of Heaven”.
Making it to Heaven also means awaiting a world that hasn’t come so there’s no point living the abundantly life in Christ here; contrary to the mission of Christ stated in John 10:10.
Eternal Life does not begin when we die. There are no promises in the New Covenant. Christ is the fulfillment of every God-given promise. This means once I’m in Christ, I have access to any promise that has ever been made. Jesus told Nicodemus, “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life”. John wrote to the 1st century church, “He who has the Son has life”. It has always been the present. God of the present.
The I Am not I will be. So when people say Heaven is a lifestyle, don’t get annoyed. God intended everything to be a lifestyle. This is even way better than seeing Heaven as a destination.
I don’t need to die to activate eternal life. I need eternal life to deactivate death. When death thinks it has got a hold of me, the Resurrection and the Life sustains His Life within me. Hallelujah! I personally don’t believe in death because “the last enemy to be defeated was death”. Jesus’ finished works include the death of Death. “Now death, where is your sting?”
So before we go around condemning people with our Bible verses, know for sure that the reason why many people are not Christians is because of the lifestyle and condemning ideologies of Christendom. Christians today are arguably the most condemning people in the world. We must go back and check our foundation and belief systems. If it segregates, brings fear or makes us “holier than thou”, then it’s not from God. The Truth is not about who is right. Truth is about what is right.
It’s about time we went back to Christo-centric living, Christo-centric doctrines and Christo-centric mindsets where is about what all about Christ from top to bottom. Why have we set Christ aside and gone back to Old Testament lifestyle? Life is about recognizing Jesus at the center of it all, from salvation to rulership.
I love you ♥
Powerful