For those who believe in an afterlife, we all want to go to Heaven, rather than the bad place. Although, in my conversations with agnostics, I have come across a few who are so angry with God (yes, somewhat of an oxymoron), that they have told me if God is in Heaven, they want to go to Hell. Ignoring those naive folks for a moment, the question is, what does it take to get to Heaven? Just how much do we have to change our lives in order to get past St. Peter at the gates?

To begin to answer that question, Salvation is an event in the life of the believer. It is a time when one professes Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, often based on the theology expressed in Romans and Ephesians…

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

• Sometimes this “profession of faith” happens at a very early age. Parents, pastors, Sunday School teachers, and even peers present the “Good News” that Christ can forgive sins and the child “goes forward” at church or a Christian event and “gets saved”.
• Sometimes this “profession of faith” happens later in life when worldly pressures become so great that something outside the pressure, God, is seen as a way to transcend the struggles of earth.
• Sometimes this “profession of faith” takes place near the end of life as one on or near their death bed looks out at the future and seeks comfort in a belief in the hereafter.

Of course these three stages or states of life are being viewed from a secular perspective, when, in fact, if the individual is truly changed, God is in the middle of it (God caused the growth) and the angels in Heaven are truly rejoicing (Luke 10:10).

The Bible, and our Bible teachers, tell us that we are to have an assurance of salvation. To question if we are truly saved is a sure indication that we are not, or, at the very least, we are weak in our faith, which is not good. So, we play the game, convincing others that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and, sometimes, if we stop long enough to think about it, we work on convincing ourselves as well.

Frankly, from an eternal perspective, it is a game of RussIan Roulette.

When one reads verses in the Bible such as…

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. - Matthew 7:13-14

We can begin to wonder, just how narrow is that gate to Heaven? Perhaps you got saved at 10 and baptized and went to Sunday School and church and was on the Finance Committee and even hosted a Bible Study for a year or so. Was that enough? And what about your kids? Have you dragged them to church at least once a month? You’re sure they have heard the gospel message, right? Are they set up to go through the narrow gate yet, or do you just not want to think about that?

Lately, I have been reading a few books about the physical persecution of Christians in China, Russia, and some of the predominantly Muslim countries (details here). It is concerning to reflect on how shallow American “faith” and practice really is by comparison. 

If so few are going to Heaven (narrow path), are we in the developed countries kidding ourselves into thinking we will not be the ones referenced in…?

Matthew 7:22-23 - On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

James clearly makes the point that there must be an outward sign of salvation. And, it is not something that is a one-and-done but should be visible over the lifetime of the believer (referred to as sanctification). In the famous passage which many see as counter to Ephesians 2:8-9 (which is not true at all) James states…

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?... So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. - James 2:14,17 

The works referenced by James (directly above) is external evidence of the internal transformation, from eternal death to eternal life, expressed in Ephesians (also above), through the grace of God and our faith in Jesus Christ.

However, when James says “faith without deeds is dead”…. one wonders if the average American Christian is saved given the relative “deeds” we compliment ourselves for vs. real Christian persecution elsewhere.

And yet, we are told by our spiritual leaders that Christians are supposed to have an assurance of our salvation (details here). But what amount of “good works” is enough, after going forward to pray with the pastor? Can we just answer the questions correctly from the baptismal pool before we get dunked and then have that “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” for the rest of our lives, starting when we come up out of the water? Or, is it enough to go to church most Sundays for the rest of our lives? Do we have to attend adult Sunday School too, or express our faith in public prayer, or participate in a meal train or perhaps even read the Bible during the week?

Where is the line in the sand between deeds without true faith (unsaved) and deeds from our faith (saved)? Can an outsider tell the difference? Can a church member tell the difference? Can we tell the difference for ourselves?

Perhaps we don’t want to talk about that because it is too unsettling. 

But, I would respectfully submit that eternity is ever more scary.

‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ - Mark 9:48

To be clear, in the verse above…. we don’t want to be the worm.

Perhaps the answer is not so simple as offering a list of what true faith looks and feels like. Maybe it’s worth praying about.

POSTSCRIPT… A reader reminded me that in the effort to warn and offer core theology on the difference between one who calls themselves Christian and one who is a born-again Christian, I missed the fundamental aspect of love. Luke 10:27 along with many verses, speaks to the way Christians respond to God’s grace in service to Him, which is to both love Him and love our neighbors (which is all of humanity). I will offer the point, respectful to the reader, that too many falsely believe a love of one’s neighbor is all that is needed for eternity in Heaven or that loving one’s neighbor is the same or sufficient in the economy of God for salvation. Love is the demonstration of a changed life (from unsaved to saved), but love can be offered to others without a changed life as well.