Sneaking Past the Pearly Gates

“What good will it be at the last great day to have taught and moralized men if they appear before God unsaved? If through life we have sought inferior objects and forgotten that men needed to be saved, then we will be held accountable.” – C.H. Spurgeon

Hell is full of good people. Good, that is, according to this world’s standards. They are good husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, friends and neighbors. They may give money to various charities… volunteer at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter… and visit people in the hospital. However, if they have not repented of their sins – and placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord – they are destined for hell.

Simply put, we cannot be “good enough” to sneak past the pearly gates or earn our way into heaven. Indeed, our best deeds are impure when it comes to their motivation and application.

Here is how the “Prince of Preachers” put it…

“Paul knew the ruin of man's natural state and did not try to educate him, but to save him; he saw men sinking to hell and did not talk of refining them, but of saving from the wrath to come. To accomplish their salvation, he gave himself up with untiring zeal to spreading the Gospel, to warning and beseeching men to be reconciled to God. His prayers were persistent and his labors incessant. His consuming passion, his ambition, his calling was to save souls. He became a servant to all men, working for them, feeling a woe within him if he did not preach the Gospel. He laid aside his preferences to prevent prejudice; he submitted his will in things indifferent, and if men would just receive the Gospel, he raised no questions about forms or ceremonies. The Gospel was the one all-important business with him. If he might save some, he would be content. This was the crown for which he extended himself, the sole and sufficient reward of all his labors and self-denials.”

“Dear reader, have you and I lived to win souls to this extent? Are we possessed with the same all-absorbing desire? If not, why not? Jesus died for sinners. Can we not live for them? Where is our tenderness? Where is our love for Christ, if we do not seek His honor in the salvation of men? Lord Jesus, saturate us through and through with an undying zeal for the souls of men.”

My friend, trying to clean someone up from the “outside in” is a waste of time. Our focus should be on leading them to saving faith in Christ and then allowing the Holy Spirit to do the rest.

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…” Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV)

“As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one…” Romans 3:10 (NKJV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President