In or Out

“ And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27). At some point, everyone is going to die and stand before God on His throne. Then everyone will be judged against God’s standard of perfection. Unless our righteousness meets God’s standard, we will not make it into Heaven. By ourselves, we will fall short; we will not be worthy. We will be condemned to die, but “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). Because Jesus substituted His death for our death, He can also substitute His righteousness for our righteousness. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (1 Corinthians 5:21). Because of substitutionary atonement—His death for our death—and double imputation—our sin to Him, His righteousness to us—we can be declared righteous and meet God’s standards of perfection.

No one barely makes it into Heaven.

If there is any spot of sin on us, we will not make it into heaven. This is why we cannot try our best to be good Christians. There is no such thing as a bad Christian or a good Christian. We are either Christian or not. We either have accepted Jesus’ substitutions for our sin and His righteousness—made possible by the atonement of His death—or we have not.

You're either in or out. 

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30). Jesus didn’t give a third option of a bystander. We either are gathering with Jesus, which means being actively involved in disciplining others, or we are scattering. If we are just standing around in God’s field, then we will be scattered with the dust that comes off of our feet by milling about.

You can't squeeze through the gates.

No tummy tuck or sin regulation system can convince God to let us in. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If we have been born again, we are new. We may stumble and fall at times, like an infant learning to walk, or a kid learning to ride a bike, but we now identify ourselves with this new life that we have been given. We have the privilege of waking up each morning and deciding we can walk in our new life.