No one can dupe God. There is nothing hidden from Him, and yet man tries to do things they believe can get them into heaven. They trust in themselves and the rules they make for themselves aside and separate from the will of God and the free gift of salvation offered to all who believe Jesus died for their sins.

We are all sinners; some of us are just saved sinners, and the others are sinners on track to go to hell, away from the presence of God’s glory, apart from Him for eternity. Which one are you? It is a choice that you make. No one else can do this for you. No one can drag you to Christ, and no one can drag you to hell. It is a choice to heed the call of Christ or not. There are no second chances here once we leave this world.

Some think they can dupe God by earning their way to salvation. Nope; in Ephesians 2:8-9, it says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” And in John 14:6, it says, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” These are very clear and simple statements, and yet people still will not listen.

No one comes to the Father except through Christ. One cannot trick God to get to heaven. No one can sneak into it either. To be with the Father, we must go through Christ; and to go through Christ, we must accept His free offer of salvation.

The unsaved cannot accept this. It means giving themselves to someone greater than themselves. It means giving up a life of selfishness and sin. They want to believe they can do ‘things’ to get to heaven aside from Christ. Those things are selfish ideas; they have to convince themselves they are worthy of heaven.

They volunteer for the poor. They give to charities. They are nice to strangers, etc. This is all good and dandy, but without standing on the foundation of Christ for this, it means nothing. These are all things that have nothing to do with redemption.

When we accept Christ, we are a redeemed person in Him. One cannot redeem themselves as the world teaches what redemption is. We cannot rise from eternal death on our own efforts; no, we need Christ for this.

In actuality, people who try to dupe God are duping themselves. There is no other way to heaven except through Christ. Even amongst believers, some have a works-based belief in their faith. They believe they must do more than accept the free gift of salvation from Christ. They believe salvation involves more than just faith. They are just duping themselves with this belief system.

If one says there is an additional need of works to ascend to heaven, then they are saying the Bible is wrong and that faith alone in the sacrifice of God’s Son, His shed blood, is not good enough for salvation. This is wrong. Any works done with the belief that it is for salvation is wrong. If we had to do works for heaven, we would all fail, because no amount of works will get us any closer to our Father.

Satan, of course, wants people to believe that a works-based faith/salvation is true. He knows the Word and will twist and turn it to make others believe this. Personal study of the Bible and a close prayerful relationship with our Father will enable people to discern Satan’s fake assertions.

I have met and know people who believe this lie from Satan. No matter how much you try to tell the truth that they cannot earn salvation, they do not listen. Maybe I am just not good at telling them, but they seem pretty darn stubborn in their stances. The worse to convince regarding works-based faith are those professing Christians.

If professing Christians believe that they need to earn in whole, or in part, their salvation, I hate to say it, but a reevaluation of their relationship with Christ needs to be made. John 14:6 and many other verses in the Bible make it clear that salvation comes only from and through Christ. Period.

To believe otherwise is believing in a lie. Most of these people do not read their Bible but act according to their own beliefs of how they think salvation is attained. Maybe it was because of their upbringing or just attending and listening to tickling-ear preachers without reference or testing the preaching against the Word.

Am I being harsh? Yes, because the truth is the truth, and the truth needs to be spoken. Heaven is a free gift of God to those that believe in the cleansing blood of Christ for their sins, to be washed clean of sin by His death and resurrection.

Why do people not accept this free gift? It is because they do not want to change the way they are living. They think only of the here and now, not the future and what is waiting for them – eternal death.

For the unbeliever, this does not seem fair. But it is fair. We are all rebellious sinners towards God. It is in our nature to be hostile towards Him. We all, because of our sin and rebellion, deserve eternal damnation.

The good news is that the shed blood of Christ on the cross – His willing sacrifice for our sins – enables those that believe this and His resurrection three days later to be cleansed in the eyes of God. We are blemish-free through our faith and trust in Christ. We are in the Book of Life, etched forever to be in His presence.

To believers, Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The unbelievers do not see this; and besides, they do not want to serve anyone but themselves. They are selfish in life and are ruled by pride in themselves.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus stated, “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

“Let him deny himself.” This is what is a sticking point for unbelievers. They are too prideful and selfish to deny themselves and follow Christ. They believe if they surrender to Christ, they will be imprisoned and lose their freedom. Oh, but there is freedom in Christ. Freedom from the sins, freedom from past guilts, freedom to have joy.

What unbelievers do not understand is that they have been duped by Satan by this belief and are actually slaves to him and sin. They do not see it this way, but it is true. They are under the rule of evil and not under the love of God or the freedom found in Christ.

We, as believers in Christ, have the discernment to not be duped. We stay strong in our faith through study of the Word and through prayer to fortify our relationship with God so we will not be duped by Satan. It is a tiring and weary battle to be in now, but we are to persevere and be patient in God’s redemptive plan for believers: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:36).

Johnflysaught@gmail.com

 

John 14:6 says, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” People do not want to believe this because there is such a natural inborn resistance to rebel against this simple truth.

People want to get to heaven on their own merits and their own deeds. These will absolutely NOT get one to heaven. There is only one way, and that is through the belief in Christ’s death for our sins and His resurrection.

This core belief in Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us is such a simple concept to hold, and yet people resist and outright blaspheme this. They, the unbelievers, want to get to heaven but on their terms, not God’s. They believe they can elbow their way through the strait and narrow path with their own ideas of what it takes to get to heaven.

They make getting to heaven more troublesome than a child-like faith in Jesus does.

I’m not downplaying the importance of our faith or Jesus, but most unbelievers I know have a notebook full of rules and do’s and don’ts of what they believe they have to do or not do to get to heaven. They believe if they check off the square boxes next to their lists, they will be allowed into heaven. But since they make the lists, of course all the boxes will be checked, but in reality, they are nowhere near even stepping towards heaven.

Christ, of course, is the only way to heaven. One only needs to believe in Him. With Christ, there is no need to have to check off lists or ensure certain deeds are done here in this world. Nope, the only thing one must do is believe in Him.

Yes, there are great and kind and generous people out there. They live wholesome lives, are kind to people, and are all-around nice people. But without Christ, it does not matter. Without accepting Christ, no matter how good they are or how they treat others, etc., without the foundation of Christ under their feet, they are doomed to hell.

Some say that this is a harsh statement. Yes, it is, but it is also a true statement.

Each and every person deserves death because we all fall short of following God’s laws.

Whether in thought or deed, we fail, and we fail miserably. People try to make up for this by doing good things and being good people, but it is just a façade. Rebellion reigns in our hearts, and no good acts or thoughts can diminish this.

Satan wants people to believe that their own deeds and merits will get them into heaven. He has people believe that they do not need Christ for salvation, but salvation is found within themselves – there is no absolute truth; only personal truth and efforts will get one to heaven. This is a lie perpetuated by Satan, and people believe it.

They do not want to believe that they need someone else’s sacrifice to allow them to go to heaven. They want to believe they can do it on their own, but doing it on their own is not going to make the cut.

When one falls to their knees in front of Jesus, they are admitting something that goes against the grain of pride and selfishness. They are admitting that they are sinners that need forgiveness and cannot get to heaven on their own but need help to do it; and that is to have an intercessor between them and God, who, of course, is Christ.

Satan, he wants people to be prideful and selfish in their beliefs on how to receive eternal life. We live in such an individualist society now that to question someone about what they believe is in itself a social sin. Satan has fashioned society so well that people actually believe their truth is truth. If one believes the sky is purple, that is their truth, and you cannot tell them otherwise but are to just accept it.

It is silly, but this is where we stand. People are so self-absorbed with themselves that they are blinded to the truth of God and what Christ did for them.

Satan sure has duped a lot of folks.

Unbelievers believe their personal beliefs are the way to heaven. They believe hell is only for bad people. Well, I have a revelation for them – we are all bad people. God is just, and justice for all mankind is hell, but He created a way through Christ, His Son, to redeem us from going to hell. We do not have to earn this way, pay for it, or do [fill in the blank] to get to heaven; we just need Jesus.

All one has to do is accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. No strings attached, no small print. But people do not want to make this commitment because they feel it limits them. Yet, they are committed to something. They are committed and are slaves to sin and death.

By default, if one is not committed to Christ, they are committed to Satan, who is the perpetuator of sin. By not making the choice to come and surrender to Christ, they chose to surrender to Satan and his ways. People do not like to hear this either, but it is absolute truth.

In life, we must choose to commit to Christ or Satan. There is no way around this.

Choose Christ, and you get eternal life. Otherwise, one gets hell. People get offended when we proclaim this to them. Even if they say they do not believe in God, they get offended when we tell them they are destined for hell.

We, as believers, want nonbelievers to accept Christ. We do not want to see them lost. We want them to share the same eternity we will have. This is especially true for our unsaved family and friends. It hurts to think of heaven without them.

We must not sugarcoat what it means for their eternity if they do not come to Christ.

We need to let them know that no matter what they do, without Christ they will not enter heaven but will go to hell.

Their merits and deeds mean nothing without Christ.

Unbelievers who are reading this must know that a choice needs to be made now, not tomorrow or the next day, but now. You cannot get to heaven by going around Christ. Christ is THE ONLY way to heaven, and if you deny this truth, you have consciously chosen to serve Satan, and you will go to hell when you die. Please consider this greatly because your eternity is at stake.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com