Text: John 3:16; Acts 4:12; Ecclesiates 12:13-14
***Excerpt from a conversation between Robert Leslie Holmes and
his uncle Sam Heslip from the book: The Breath of Abundant Life.***
“Leslie, have you reached that point in your spiritual life where you know for
certain that if you died today you would spend eternity with God in His
heaven?” Uncle Sam’s words gripped me because they were direct and because
I felt they begged for only one acceptable answer. For me that answer was
“No.” It seemed to me that for anyone to “know for certain” was presumptuous
and egotistical.
I replied, “I don’t think anybody
can know that for sure.”
GOD WANTS YOU TO KNOW
“Really?” Uncle Sam opined,
“Suppose I could show you that God actually wants you to know? What would you
say?”
I said, “If that was the case,
I’d say that I need to know.” Without saying a word, he opened one of his Bible
on his desk and pointed out these words: “These things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have
eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John
5:13).
Uncle Sam continued, “If God
wants you to know that you have eternal life, shouldn’t pursuing that become
one of your life’s main goals?” His words made sense. Somewhere within me there
was a rapidly growing desire to listen carefully. It was God’s Holy Spirit
prompting me to take careful stock of what I was being told.
Uncle Sam asked me another
question, “Suppose you were to die today
and God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ What would you say to
Him?”
VIRTUE IS A BAD THING!
I do not recall the exact words
of my answer, but something about this question brought me face to face with
the reality of mortality. I knew that I could die today. None of us will leave
this world alive and most of us will have no control of when we do die. I was
at the same time realizing that I could die at any moment and recognizing that
it was clearly foolish for me not to have made preparation for that possibility
and trying to frame what would be my best answer in words God might find
acceptable. What would I say to God? What could I say to God?
To the best of my recollection,
my answer went something like this: “I would say that I had not committed any
big sins like murder or adultery and I had attended church and I pray
sometimes.”
I was caught! The twinkle in my
Uncle Sam’s eyes told me he knew already exactly where I was with God. He said,
“Leslie, there is nothing worse than good works that think they can satisfy a
sinner’s need of God!”
He proceeded at that point to
tell me his own story of coming to faith. He began with a reassurance that
there was a time in his own life when he would have answered as I had just
done. “I needed to learn,” he said, “that
all my good works together could never save my soul. One day I read in
Isaiah, ‘We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as
filthy rags” (64:6).’” Then, he said, “I made the most amazingly wonderful
discovery of my entire life. I learned that heaven is a free gift. Would you
like to learn what I did?” I said I would and he invited me to draw my chair to
his desk where we could look together at his Bible.
WAGES AND GIFTS
He pointed out these words: “For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). I had seen these words before. I remembered
that they were painted on the side of a barn along the coast near where I had
grown up.
“Do you realize what this tells
us?” he asked. Quickly he added, “What, in your opinion, is the difference
between wages and gift?” “The difference between wages and a gift”, I answered,
“is that wages are something we earn and a gift is something someone gives us
for nothing.”
“Exactly”, he said. “Now think
about your answer a moment ago when I asked what you would tell God if you were
asked why you should get into heaven. Were you describing wages or a gift?”
I realized immediately that my
answer was all about wages. It spoke about what I might have earned by what I
had done and not done. I had done what I considered to be some commendable
things and I had not committed what I called “big sins.” Here was God’s own
Word telling me that all the wages I had ever earned could never total enough
to make me fit for heaven. I thought of that barn sign again and realized that
as many times as I had read it I had never thought about what it was telling
me.
Uncle Sam said, “Let me show you
something else.” Opening his Bible at another place, he pointed out these
words: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it
is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10).
I knew these words too. I remembered
preachers reciting them in sermons. I had read them in the Bible previously,
but they seemed to have no particular meaning to me. “It’s not that works are a
bad thing,” Uncle Sam said, “It is just that works by themselves cannot earn
heaven. It takes something more. That something more is called grace. ‘For by
grace are ye saved.’”
SINNERS UNANIMOUS
He opened his Bible at another
place and showed me these words, “There is none righteous, no, not one: there
is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all
gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that
doeth good, no, not one (Romans 3:10-12). “For all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
“Do you see our human predicament?”
he asked me. “All of us are stained by the same thing; you and me and everybody
else in the world. We have all fallen short of God’s glory. We are unanimous in
our guilt.”
He paused again before adding,
“God, however, is holy. Look at what the Bible says here, ‘Be ye holy; for I am
holy’ (1 Peter 1:16)… ‘The Lord our God is righteous in all His works’ (Daniel
9:14). He always does the right things. Because God is holy and righteous, He
must keep His Word and His Word says, ‘the soul that sinneth, it shall die; and
this, of course, ‘For the wages of sin is death’ (Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23).
This means that we have an impossible predicament. We have sinned and our death
sentence has already been pronounced.
…Uncle Sam added, “what is more,
we cannot save ourselves.” I knew that, for already I had resolved more times
than I could remember to do better than I had done and I had failed every time.
Like a kite on a windless day, I kept falling. I lacked the necessary power.
Truly, we all lack the
necessary power to save ourselves. “Not the labours of your hands can fulfill
the Lords demands…” There is salvation in no one else other than in Jesus
Christ (Acts 4:12). And God has commandeth His love towards us in that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
Love has paid the prize for our death, and none other can equal the sacrifice Jesus made for you and I on the
Cross. “There is no love greater than this, for someone (Jesus Christ) to die for His friends,
for you and I” (John 15:12-13).
Finally, the whole essence of
this piece is to reveal God’s will and desire for your life, to help you search
deep into your soul and discover where you stand spiritually, and to help you
determine your end when the roll is called up yonder. However, just re-echoing Uncle Sam's pertinent and profound question begging an answer, “Suppose you were to die today and God asked
you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ What would you say to Him?” RSVP
*** Slightly edited by Jacobs Adewale (Admin) ***
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