I once heard someone say “I try to live a good, clean life, and hopefully when I die it’ll be good enough to get me into heaven.” Well, the sad reality is that it won’t be.
Try as we might, it is literally impossible for any human being to live a life that’s good enough to get him/her into heaven. Why? Because perfection is required in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. In order to “make it in” we must be without spot or blemish – in other words, without sin.
The problem is that no man or woman is perfect. Each and every one of us was born into a life of sin, and there is nothing we can do to change that fact. As long as we’re alive on this earth we’ll be stuck with the legacy of sin passed down to us over the generations from Adam. We’re all sinners, and as such we are simply incapable of living a perfect life. We just cannot do it.
Therein lies the problem that we all must face: We have to be perfect in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven when our earthly life comes to an end, but since it’s impossible for us to live a perfect life it would seem that we’re doomed to spend eternity in hell! But that isn’t the case at all…
You see, God made a way for us to achieve the status of perfection through the blood sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus came down to earth in the form of a human baby. Then, just like every baby must, He grew up. Chronologically, He lived a normal life by going through the stages of childhood, His teenage years, and finally adulthood. And through it all He remained as spotless as a lamb, perfect and without sin. How is that possible you say, given the fact that all human babies are born into sin because of the fall of Adam?
Well, it’s possible because unlike the rest of us, Jesus wasn’t a descendant of Adam. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, not a man, and His mother Mary was a virgin. This miraculous holy conception and birth allowed the Christ child to avoid the chain of sin that stretched all the way back to Adam and Eve. Jesus was 100% human, yet He was also 100% God - He was perfect in every way!
Jesus was born without sin and He lived a sinless life, but He took on the sins of the entire world and allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross at Calvary so that His shed blood could provide remission for our sins. Jesus became the Saviour of the entire world by offering Himself up as the perfect sacrifice so that we humans might be saved!
So while it’s true that we will never be able to live a perfect life, thanks to our sins being “covered” by the blood of Jesus, in the eyes of God those who accept Him as their personal Saviour will be perfect and without sin, and worthy of being admitted into His holy Kingdom.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” - John 3:16