Imagine that you died today and were brought face to face with God at the entrance to heaven. If He asked you the question, “Why should I let you into heaven?” what would you say? Would you reply, in so many words, that you had lived a decent life, that you had tried to help your fellow man as much as you could...that you had done the best you could?

Perhaps you would say that you had gone to church regularly, were a member in good standing in your church. Or would you tell God that He should let you into heaven because you had responded to an altar call, that you had signed a “decision card”, and had been baptised?

What would you say if I told you that, based on responses like these, God would not and could not let you into Heaven? All such responses reveal one very important thing about any who imagine that they will, through these things, gain entrance into heaven : they believe that good works will save them from hell. But God’s Word says that it is “not by works of righteousness that we have done” (Titus 3:5) that we are saved from the wrath of God. Salvation from sin and hell can never be obtained by trying to live a good life or keep the Ten Commandments. God’s law can only condemn you; it cannot save you because it demands perfection, and you have no power to meet that demand because you are born a sinner.

But God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, left heaven and came into this world to save those who could never save themselves. He kept perfectly that law of God that you could not keep. And He was crucified on a Cross in order to bear the wrath of God in the place of sinners. God the Father punished sin in Christ that day on the Cross...not sin that He had committed for He was sinless but the sin of others. This is why Christ is the only Saviour of sinners. If you do not go to Him and take the salvation that He freely offers you, then you must bear the wrath of God in your own person in hell forever. But if you will “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ...and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ right now where you are. Confess to Him that you are indeed a sinner that deserves to be punished, that you have no good works that could ever make you acceptable, and that you have no power whatsoever to save yourself. But then plead the gospel truth that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save those who could not save themselves. Ask Christ to save you from your sin and the judgement to come. Go to Him even now for He said, “...him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).