Can You Make the Grade?

In the land of earned salvation:

The required IQ for gaining entry by intellectual capacity is always just a few points higher than yours.

The mark for physical strength is always 25lbs higher than you can press.

The amount a wealthy man must give is always $100 more than you earn in a year.

We often seek to enter Heaven by the door marked "Wage Earner". Yet, Jesus gave us this gift that we cannot purchase or earn. No one is smart enough, fast enough, or strong enough to batter down the doors of Heaven. We cannot donate enough loot to earn a one-way ticket on the Heaven Cruise. The final flight of Do-Gooder Airlines left the gate just moments before we got there, and no one we would recognize boarded that plane anyway. Earned salvation is a fantasy trip that we cannot imagine, a ten-year epic journey that we must complete in a day, or a mountain climbing expedition where we find that someone has stolen the mountain top just before we got the ropes and pitons purchased. In other words, you and I are disqualified before we even start.

Jesus gave to us a better way: Himself. That which cannot be earned, He earned for us. That which cannot be purchased, our Lord bought with His blood. That which we have no chance of grasping, Christ gives to us for the asking. Salvation, it's a wonderful gift of the Savior!

Bucky