“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” -Revelation 3:20 (NIV)
Can we knock on the gates of Heaven? We like to think we can. Whether we are open about it or not, we feel that with all our good works under our belts and all our theological knowledge in our heads, we are deserving of a place in Heaven. But the truth is that we cannot ensure a place in Heaven with these things. We may have fed every starving mouth in the world in our selfless service and know every theological concept in existence. However, if we have not personally acknowledged that we are sinners in need of salvation and have not allowed God to take care of the wickedness that resides in our hearts, we will never be able to enter Heaven.
No one can enter Heaven by their own merits. According to God’s standards on what constitutes as sin, none of us will be able to say with confidence that we have lived a pure and sinless life. God cannot tolerate impurity, however little, because by His nature He is holy. If we find even a small pinch of dirt in a glass of water, do we regard it as being pure or impure? Likewise, despite all our works and knowledge, God cannot allow us into His Heaven if we are still bound by sin.
From the moment that Adam and Eve sinned, God knew that man would not be able to reconcile themselves to Him. He promised Eve that her offspring would crush the head of the serpent, Satan. This referred to the coming of Jesus who through His death and resurrection, has paid the penalty of sin for all of humanity and broken the hold Satan had over the world. Though we cannot reach Heaven because of our own limitations, in His grace, God has come down to humanity so that He may redeem His creation through Christ. He now stands at the door of our hearts and knocks. He will not barge in because He respects the free will He has given us. Once our doors are opened, we have an assured passage to Heaven because we have allowed Him to come into our hearts. The question for us is, why do we deny ourselves divine help when we know we need it to attain salvation?
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.