Why Can’t Everyone Go to Heaven?

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”   Revelation 21:6-8

This is a talk I recently shared (if you’d like to listen, click here) and since doing so I’ve being feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit to share it in my blog so more people can have access to it (please feel free to pass this on). I know it’s not all that vogue to talk about hell these days (though everyone likes the idea of eternal bliss in heaven). However, God talked about it…Jesus talked about it…so we should as well. After all we are all going to die. Shouldn’t we therefore at least consider what happens afterward?

I remember a time when I was in high school and before I became a follower of Jesus, hearing my cousin say something like this, “…only born again Christians could even stand heaven…”  What!?!?  What was he talking about?  In fact, what’s a born again Christian?  I was so confused…and scared. Was my cousin right? I believe he was and here’s why…

Here’s the deal about heaven and hell and why they even exist… It’s about holiness. God is holy and we are not. God is holy because He’s perfect. His love is perfect. God can’t love you more because His love is already maxed out.  It’s perfect.  His justice is perfect. He knows all the details, sees all sides, and always arrives at the correct conclusion. God never changes. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) because He’s perfect.

Human beings on the other hand are always changing. We change our minds. Our love ebbs and flows for both God and others. We constantly misjudge. We are imperfect because we are…not God…but also because we have this horrible disease called sin which has perverted us and made us so imperfect and unholy so much so that we are hopelessly separated from perfection, God Himself. In fact, that’s what the word holy means, “to be set apart.”  In fact, God is so set apart from us that we can’t get to Him unless He makes a way.

Here’s the way Hebrews states it: “…without holiness, no one will see the Lord…” (Hebrews 12:14). Furthermore, in that same chapter, the Word of God (the Bible) says this: “…our God is a consuming fire…” (Hebrews 12:29). Our sun is twenty-seven million degrees at the core and ten million degrees at the surface. Now that’s hot! That’s consuming! You touch, you die! Here’s what I’m getting at: God created the sun! He is a consuming fire because of His holiness. This means I can’t even be in His presence, unless He makes a way. In other words, holiness and unholiness can’t be in the same room together or we would be consumed, unless He makes a way. Are you getting scared yet?

Jesus when referring to hell most often called it “Gehenna “ (or “Geenna”) which was a real place in the valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem. Gehenna was the garbage dump where “…the worms [maggots] that eat them [dead bodies] and the fire is not quenched [a fire to burn what could be burned to keep disease from being spread] (Jesus, Mark 9:48, brackets mine). So why do we need garbage dumps? Duh! So we can live in the city without death and disease. Hell is the garbage dump for death and disease so God and His children (those who follow Jesus) can live in the same city.

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.   Revelation 21:22-23

Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.   Revelation 21:27

So why can’t anything “impure” enter heaven?  Because “The LORD is there” (Ezekiel 48:35). In fact, that’s what makes heaven (and the new earth, see Revelation 21-22) so AWESOME! Because God is there! In other words, heaven is awesome not because of what is there, but WHO is there. Jesus is there!

By the way, that’s what makes hell so terrible. God isn’t there…nor is anything that finds its source in God like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. In hell there won’t be satisfaction or pleasure (which in its unperverted and undiluted form comes from God). There will be nothing to numb the pain of the loss and the separation from God. There will be no friendship, or companionship, or sex (because that too comes from God…it was His idea).   It will be no party and there will be no respite.

In hell, people won’t ever get better, only worse and worse. You know how diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, dementia, AIDS transform a person until you don’t even recognize them? Well, sin is exponentially worse! It leads to death because it’s a killer. By the way, like cancer I can deny I have it, but it will still kill me without impunity. And sin is even worse because we’re not talking about life on this earth, but eternity.

But why would a loving God even create such a place? Because when God makes something really special (like angels and especially mankind, read Psalm 8), He makes us to last forever. 

My friend, He made you to last forever because He wanted you to spend eternity with Him. He also gave you the precious gift of freedom (because without freedom, there is no love), and He wants you to love Him of your own free will.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. John 3:16-19

If you use your freedom to choose hell instead of him…if you use your freedom to choose sin over God…if you use your freedom to choose yourself or another human being and elevate you or them to the place God belongs…then God will allow hell to be the final dignity of your human freedom.

There’s only one way to get into heaven and that’s by being holy.   So how do we become holy?   There’s only one way and it’s GREAT NEWS:

…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:10

 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.    1 Corinthians 1:30

So who is made holy?  Scripture is clear and final: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

My friend, you must believe and confess Jesus as “YOUR” Lord. If you do, He will make his home in your heart right now and you will be born anew (i.e., “born again”) by the Spirit of God.  And with this new birth by the Spirit, the only cure for sin, Jesus, will begin to flow through your veins, healing you, transforming you, and making you holy and acceptable before God.

Think of it like getting your flu shot but it lasts for eternity. : )

Mel

P.S. By the way, there’s one thing better than heaven and that’s bringing someone with you…why not pass this on to someone you care about or inviting them to your church?