Heaven's Citizenship Requirements


There are no illegal aliens in Heaven. You must go through the legal process to become a citizen or you cannot enter through the gates. People have often tried to find a way around that, but the security surrounding Heaven is just too strong. There is no tunneling in or climbing over the gates. You cannot bribe your way past the guards.

It may seem obvious to say that you must die to enter into Heaven, but I am not speaking about a physical death. Jesus Christ has already paid your entrance fee with His physically death on the cross. But had he remained dead, you still would not be allowed to enter into Heaven. Your sins were paid for on the cross, but your eternity was secured through the power of His resurrection.

To enter Heaven you must accept God’s citizenship process. God created Heaven, He is the King of Heaven, and He gets to make the rules. And He has decreed that you must pay for your citizenship with your life…your spiritual life. This would seem to be an easy choice, since we are already spiritually dead without Christ. We are slaves to sin and a physical death without Christ. It is only through our belief in and acceptance of Christ that we can become spiritually alive. But that spiritual life cannot belong to us if we wish to become citizens of Heaven.

Many people want to make Jesus their Savior, but they do not want to make Him their Lord. They want fire protection to prevent their peril in Hell, but they want to take the new life that God gives them and use it however they choose. That doesn’t work for God, because we can only gain that spiritual life when God buys us out of our slavery. Our new spiritual life does not belong to us because we did not pay for it. God did. The entrance process for Heaven requires that we accept Jesus, who died in our place, as our Savior and Lord. Unless we are willing to do this, we have not been adopted into the family of God, we do not have a completed passport for our journey to Heaven, and we have not become citizens of Heaven.

God is not in the insurance business. He does not sell fire insurance for your belief in His Son’s death and resurrection. Satan not only believes that but also knows it beyond any shadow of doubt. It is not belief alone that is required. He offers you the gift of citizenship when you lay down your spiritually dead life, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and place your new spiritual life in His hands by proclaiming your faith and trust in Him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dirty Feet

Image
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.” Isaiah 52:7 (NIV) I have never been very comfortable in shoes. It really doesn’t matter whether they have great arch support, ultra extreme amounts of cushioning, or how much they cost. The first thing I do when I arrive home is take off my shoes and stretch my once imprisoned feet by bending them at the arches and wiggling my toes. I then remove my socks and begin to feel my feet relax as the fresh air washes over my tingling, sometimes sweaty, toes. Pretty picture, I know. It must be the right thing to do. A billion Chinese could not be wrong. My mother could not be wrong. After all, she was the one who always told me to, “Take off your dirty shoes before you come in here. I just finished mopping this floor and I don’t want mud tracked all over my clean house.” It became a normal ritual around our house to put the dozen or so shoes away before company was expected. My mother didn’t want dirty f...
Read more

Pampered and Pacified

Author J.M. Barrie created the character that never wanted to grow up. Peter Pan, also the title of his famous book, did not want to become an adult and be forced to deal with all of the stress and struggles that came with the transformation. So Peter found his way to Neverland where, along with his lost boys, he could remain a carefree child forever. But those who know the story also know that carefree was not all that it promised for villainous Captain Hook constantly lurked around the corners, and then there was that tantalizing Wendy who stole Peter’s heart before he even knew what hit him. Millions of Americans have seemed to follow in the footsteps of Peter Pan. We have become a nation that no longer values the virtues of adulthood: especially responsibility, strong work ethic, self-dependence, selflessness, and community awareness. You don’t have far to look in our American society before you see lost boys, and girls, running around everywhere. Grown men and women who want ...
Read more

Ephesians 5 - Our Life of Love

Image
When I have learned to love God more than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.” C.S. Lewis In a Nutshell Paul encourages Christians to be imitators of God and to walk in love. Don’t fall into a life of sin, but rather stand against sin and try to expose it. Use your time wisely as you follow God’s will. Let the Holy Spirit direct and influence your behaviors. As you do this, husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and wives should respect and submit to their husbands. The Power of Example In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin tells of the time he wanted to convince the citizens of Philadelphia to light the streets at night as a protection against crime and as a convenience for evening activities. Failing to convince them by his words, he decided to show his neighbors how compelling a single light could be. He bought an attractive lantern, polished the glass, and placed in on a long bracket that extended from the f...
Read more