Which Coupon Gets You Into Heaven?

To redeem a $5 coupon at a dollar store, I needed to spend $25, so my husband and I stopped by to pick up a few things. Since dollar store items are cheap, we kept adding to the cart—shampoo, vitamins, and at the last minute I threw in a box of blueberry waffles to make sure I spent $25.

As we headed to the checkout, I reached for my coupon. It wasn’t in the compartment of my purse where I put it. I rooted through every section of my purse. No coupon. I looked in our car. No coupon.

I finally gave up on finding my precious coupon, and we checked out with a total of $37 worth of merchandise. My coupon did me no good.

Hungry for Heaven?

My experience with my coupon reminds me of the “coupons” we may think we need to cash in to get to heaven.

Perhaps we think that if we are “good enough” we will earn a coupon for heaven. But what is “good enough”? Have you ever tried to live the perfect life for a day? You are sure to have a wrong thought or grumble at your husband.

           

Perhaps we think that if we serve God enough, we will get a coupon for heaven. But how much must we serve? Does it count if I hand out juice at vacation Bible school? If I host a neighborhood Bible study? Work as a pastor? Teach Sunday school? How much service is enough?

           

Perhaps we think that if we pray enough, we will get a coupon for heaven. But how long must we pray. Five minutes? Thirty-five minutes? An hour a day? Five hours? How much prayer is enough?

           

Perhaps if we serve our fellow man, we will get a coupon for heaven. Does it count if we buy a meal for a homeless person? Serve in the Peace Corps? Visit a nursing home? What must we do to earn a coupon for serving our fellow man?

            You get the idea. We can never:

be good enough

pray enough

or serve enough.

Good works follow salvation, but they don’t provide salvation. If they did, Christ’s death was unnecessary.

Hope for Heaven:

           

So is there no hope for us to get to heaven? Fortunately, there is. Christ lived a perfect life, a life that is good enough. And by dying on the cross, He paid the price, the sacrifice, required by a righteous God to pay for our sin. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

           

You see, God is so holy, so perfect, that only perfection may come into His Presence. We simply don’t qualify in ourselves. But when we receive/believe/accept (whatever word you want to use) Christ as our Savior, it is as though He wraps us in His own white robe of righteousness. Although we are still sinful people, we then appear sinless and perfect before God.

           

That is salvation. That is the gift for which we need no coupon. We need only Christ.

           

Headed for Heaven:

If you’ve never embraced Christ as your Savior, just pray this prayer today:

           

Dear Lord, I know I’ve done wrong things in my life, and I’m sorry. (Feel free to tell Him the things you remember.) I believe Christ died as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for my sins. I invite Him to be Lord of my life, and I look forward to doing good works for Him throughout this life and walking with Him right into eternity. In His Name I pray. Amen.

“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story . . . . “ Psalm 107:2

           

You are now a new person in Christ. Write this date in your Bible. Know that on this date you passed from certain death and separation from God into life eternal. And tell someone of the step you’ve taken. Feel free to leave a note on this message to celebrate your salvation. And may God bless you for taking this step of faith.

Feel free to share this post if you think it might help someone seeking better to know God.

           

Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels