How Did Jesus Already Do the Work to Earn My Entry into Heaven?
How Did Jesus Already Do the Work to Earn My Entry into Heaven? |
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Short Answer Version Jesus removed from you the burden of earning your way to Heaven. Instead He earned Heaven for you. He did this by paying the price Himself. In contrast to other religious paths, which require good works as the way to Heaven, Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way". No one comes to the Father in Heaven any other way. Jesus did the work for you by an insurpassable display of love. This work was good enough, powerful enough, to be applied to you, me, and everyone else who believes in Jesus. In His sacrificial death He completed the task of taking the punishment of all our sins and shortcomings on Himself, thereby SAVING us from them. The only work on our parts is, in actuality not a condition at all. It is effortless non-work. Faith requires no effort because it is a gift from God. He provides the gift of faith to believe in Jesus as your personal Savior. Ask and you will receive. Long Answer Version Jesus did something that stands as the most important event in history. He substituted Himself for you. He died in your place, when He was 33 years of age. It was just outside Jerusalem on a Roman cross. He did it so you wouldn’t have to die. He did it in an act of sacrificial love that was powerful beyond measure. Jesus died on the cross in our place and rose from the dead on the third day later. His substitutionary death was not for only you but was powerful enough to cover the whole world of people needing a Savior, throughout time. It was powerful enough to do the work of earning the way into Heaven for everyone who believes. That is why you can consider Jesus not only your personal Savior. He is also called the Savior of the world. When Jesus took our place on the cross, it was to fulfill God the Father's desire to reconcile as many as would believe to Himself. Unfortunately, those who refuse will not have that honor, as far as we can tell from what we know here on earth. Here, "reconcile" means to take away the emotional and spiritual separation between a person and their Heavenly Father. Unfortunately, those who refuse will not have that honor, as far as we can tell from what we know here on earth. Jesus experienced the agony of all the wrongdoings that ever happened or will happen. He did this “in our stead”. Today we don’t use the phrase “in our stead” very often, but we do use the words “instead of us”. The two phrases mean the same thing. He died instead of you dying, and instead of me having to die. He paid for ALL our penalties, Himself. This means you do not have to work your way into heaven or earn points for doing good things. God is not waiting to count all the bad things and all the good things you did and decide your future based on which number was higher. When you have faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can rejoice because your name is written in heaven. Jesus said that. You are on the guest list. Not only His sacrificial death, but also His resurrection are both part of the deal. He died as a substitute for us and so we are united with Him in death. We are also united with Him in His resurrection. He applies resurrection power into our lives as we are born anew, and it carries over all the way into the next life. It is a “package deal”. You don't have to do good works to live forever. But you certainly can do good works, and try to be as good a person as you are able. God likes that. He is good, and appreciates it when we let Him transform us to be more like Him in those ways. When we get to know Him personally, He puts the desire in our hearts to do good things, and become better people. He give us the ability to live out the lives of saved and Spirit-filled individuals. This is because we wouldn't otherwise be able, not at the heart level, due to our limited abilities. He improves our hearts. One way of explaining this is that He ransomed you. The word picture is like He paid the ransom for you after being kidnapped. Then He brought you home as part of His family. He bought you and placed you in His large family of believers. He paid a high price to be close to you. He welcomes all who believe to be part of His close, loving family. Salvation is a gift, not a burden. A Few Old Testament Passages about Jesus Doing the Work that Earned Our Entry into HeavenWe see foreshadowed in several of the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus would die in our place. His death would defeat satan and break his hold from our lives. The defeat of satan proved to be our victory, pretold from the beginning. In Genesis 3, just after Adam's fall, God gave a prophecy that the serpent would “bruise the heel” of a descendant of Eve, but that descendant would "crush the serpent's head.'' Many believe this descendant was Jesus and the serpent was satan. Jesus was not defeated. He resurrected alive and well. But satan’s head was crushed because the cross brought victory and sealed his fate, satan's ultimate demise. Jesus was not defeated. He resurrected alive and well. But satan’s head was crushed because the cross brought victory and sealed his fate, satan's ultimate demise. In Genesis 22, the near-sacrifice of Isaac was symbolic of Jesus. Abraham, said, ''God will provide Himself a lamb.'' It is easy to look back on that account and see the symbolism in which Abraham represented God the Father, Isaac represented the Son of God, and the lamb (aka the ram) represented Jesus the ultimate sacrifice. The fact that Isaac lived while the lamb died, might represent the ongoing life of Jesus after being slain and resurrecting. Later, in Exodus 12, we are introduced to the concept of a lamb to be offered in sacrifice to save God's people from sin and death. It was unblemished, and its blood protected the children of Israel. The Passover lamb most likely also foretold of Jesus, our unblemished sacrifice. If we consider the passover as not only an historical fact, but also a typological prophecy, the meaning indicated God would triumph over death to save God's people later as well, probably in Jesus. The death of Jesus stands as continually and utterly effective through all generations. Then, in Exodus 22, the sin offering was set up. A bull and two lambs would be sacrificed. The lambs would be slain, one in the morning and one in the evening. This was to be a continual burnt offering throughout all generations of Israel to cover their sins. In Leviticus 4, a lamb without blemish was again a sin offering assigned by God. When Jesus was 30 years old, He was called “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” by John the Baptist. Jesus was unblemished in that He was without sin his entire life. Many other prophecies foretelling the substitutionary death of Jesus were made. The most famous is in Isaiah 53. The entire chapter is remarkable, but the following statement stands out. ''Surely, he has borne our griefs and has carried our sorrows. Yet, we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his wounds, such as through being whipped, we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but despite such failures, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted. Yet, he didn't even open his mouth; he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter.'' In the field of theology (the study of God) the word “vicarious” means the same as “done in the place of”, also known as “substitutionary”. The word “Atone” means to completely make amends. The noun form is "Atonement." The phrase “vicarious atonement” is the idea that Jesus Christ experientially took the place of mankind, being punished for our faults. In so doing, He paid for the sins we commit. Thereby, He brings reconciliation between the believer and God. Paul wrote about Christ's sacrifice, saying "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them''. The Lord, who is all-wise, has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. When Jesus from the cross said, “It is finished,” it was this act of which He spoke. It was this work that earned your way into heaven. This quote is attributed to James MacDonald: "Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay." When I received Jesus into my heart, I knew He was my Savior. Over a year later I started to grasp what it meant. I had many questions, and deeply studied these concepts in Bible College. It deepened my love for Jesus immeasurably just to know the extent of His demonstrated love. I have laid this out for you in the beginning of your journey, hoping you will start to understand how this good message of Jesus, though simple, is deeper than all other profound statements ever known to humanity.
Scriptures On This Topic From the New Testament These verses are for those who are interested in seeing what the New Testament says about the work of Jesus dying in our place. To save time, you can read the verses by copying each line below and pasting it into the search field of biblegateway.com or a similar Bible search site or application. John 11:49-51
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