Why do I need Jesus to go to heaven?

Imagine for just a moment that everybody on earth went to heaven today. Imagine that God just opened the doors to heaven and let everyone in.   No consideration was given to their religion or lack of religion, to their beliefs or lack of beliefs, to their education or lack of education, to their wealth or lack of wealth, or to their conduct in this life either good or bad.

God just opened the doors, let us all in with a fresh start, and told us to always love one another and never hate, to always do good and never bad, to always forgive others no matter what others might do to you, to always be extremely generous, to always do to others only what you would want them to do to you, and to be perfect in every way from now throughout eternity. 

How long would it be before heaven was just as messed up as earth?

How long would it be before heaven would be as divided as earth?

How long would it be before God would have to have a police force to keep the peace? 

How long would it be before the first fight or the first war broke out? 

How long would it be before the heavenly court system becomes as overcrowded as ours? 

How long would it be before God would have to write new laws to prevent us from taking advantage of loop holes? 

It doesn’t take much to see that it wouldn’t be long before heaven would be no better place to live than earth. Heaven would no longer be heaven in just a short period of time.

Or to put it another way, suppose God opened the doors of heaven and let everyone in with the stipulation that we could live in heaven as long as we will live by His laws and His rules. But if we break or violate one of His laws, we would have to leave. How long do you think it would be before you would have to leave? How long would it be before there was no one left in heaven?

There are basically two reasons we need Jesus to get to heaven. 

First, we have to do something to make up for our sins. Our sins are all those things in life that we did that displease God, even anger Him. They include all those things we did that we shouldn’t have done, all those thoughts and attitudes that were ugly and negative, and all those things we should have done but didn’t do.

Just think of all the things you did in your life that you know were wrong. It doesn’t matter that no one else knows what you’ve done. God knows. No one else may remember, but God does. It may be that there are many things you knew were wrong even as you were doing them. God says, “Your sins will find you out.[1]” You may be tempted to try and cover up your sins. But God says, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper.[2]”

Just think about all those ugly thoughts you had about people you didn’t particularly like. Or those thoughts you had that were lustful and filthy, the thoughts that were self-centered and selfish, or all those thoughts you had that were mean and hateful. They may be thoughts that no one but you and God know about. God says, “As a man thinks within himself, so is he.[3]”

Just think of all the good things you should have done in your life, but didn’t do. Think of all the good things you could have done, or even wanted to do, but never quite got around to doing. God considers that to be sin. God says, “To him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.[4]”

You have to find a way to rid yourself of all the things in your life that God considers sinful. That is why you need Jesus. Jesus came to take away all your sins, everyone of them. The Bible says, “He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin our behalf.[5]”

Second we need Jesus is because we lack the ability to live without sinning. The governor of a state can pardon the entire prison population in his state. He could wipe their slate clean so that he can walk out of prison free men. But unless he can change their hearts and somehow transform them into men who will always under every circumstance obey the law, the prisons in his state would begin to fill back up with all the men he pardoned and released. Forgiving them doesn’t make them good men.

None of us have the ability to live without sin even under the best circumstances. That ability is not in us.   We can’t produce that ability within us either. However, Jesus does possess that ability. He is the only one who lived a perfect life without doing anything displeasing God. He is the only one who lived a life here on earth that pleased God in every way. The fortunate thing for us is that He wants to give us His ability to live sinlessly. He is the only one who can give us the ability to live completely pleasing to God. He is the only one who can make us perfect so that we will never sin again. He can do for us what religion can’t. He can do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. He can give us His ability to live without sin. The Bible says that we can “become the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus).[6]”

Without Him doing that for everyone who goes to heaven, heaven could not be heaven.

You need Jesus to get to heaven because He is the only way anyone can live without sin in heaven. Everyone in heaven will have to be as sinless as Jesus for heaven to be heaven.

The Bible is very clear when it says that God's “eyes are too pure to approve evil” and He “cannot look on wickedness with favor”. Heaven is His place not ours. Heaven is where God lives. He isn’t going to let people do to heaven what we have done to earth.

Before He can let us into heaven, He has to make us as good as He is so we can live in heaven without destroying it. Jesus is the only one who can do that for us. Without Jesus we could never be good enough for heaven.

Without Jesus, we could never be free from our sins, nor would we ever be able to live without sin. Heaven is a place of sinless perfection. Unless we possess that perfection, we will not be allowed to enter heaven. Jesus wants you to have His sinless perfection so you can live out of His perfection in a way required in Heaven.