How Can You Go To Heaven

 Several major news sources, including the New York Times and USA Today, reported President Trump’s August 19 comments on Fox & Friends regarding his hopes of going to heaven.  In the interview, speaking of his efforts for peace in Ukraine, President Trump reportedly said, "I wanna try and get to heaven if possible. I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons."

 It is a good thing to want to create peace.  And it is a good thing to want to go to heaven.  Almost everyone shares that desire.  We should pray for President Trump on both counts. But this raises a question.  How does anyone get to heaven?

 Mother Teresa said, “I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’”   “My key to heaven is that I loved Jesus in the night.”

 Billy Graham said, “I am not going to heaven because I am a preacher. I am going to heaven entirely on the merit of the work of Christ.” 

 The Bible is clear  that none of us can achieve a level of goodness to deserve heaven.  Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” 

 Paul put it like this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is only by God’s grace through faith that any of us enter heaven, and that faith must be more than lip service or hypocrisy.  James stated, “But someone may say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

 Peter summed it up, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, (1 Peter 1:3-5).