God is good; very good. At every point, He gives us options. Even in our journey, God provides two parallel paths to heaven. You can enter in by personally keeping the law. Or you can choose to go in on the wings of another, the One who is an end of the law to righteousness to everyone who believes. Unfortunately, these two paths are parallel; they will never meet.
Elements Of The First Of These Two Parallel Paths
Our Heavenly Father made it so that if a man could keep the law, he would live by it. That is the kindness of God on full display. However, it is near impossible to keep the law, because if you sin in one, you have transgressed all of them.
Additionally, as many as are relying on the law to take them to Heaven are under a curse. The reason for a curse on the one who chooses the law as his spiritual path to Heaven is not far the seek.
“Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law.” And since you cannot but stumble in one, seeing as we are human, this particular path to heaven has a curse hanging over it.
Characteristics Of The Other Path To Heaven
On the other hand, there is the path which does not depend on you keeping the law. It depends on a pardon. God sent His Son to die a gruesome death to bring us back to Himself in Heaven.
By dying on the cross, Jesus obtained a pardon from judgement for all. However, only those who recognize the futility of keeping the law will seek that pardon. Of course, once you ask, God plucks you up from the law path. He then translates you to the kingdom of the Son of His love on the pardon path. On this path, grace abounds. Blessings – the opposite of curses – also abound on this path to Heaven.
The Preferred Path To Heaven
In spite of often failing to keep the law, you may suppose that you can make it to Heaven via the law pathway. But that is a terrible misconception. The reason is that we have all sinned and come short of God’s glorious ideal. And since the wages of sin is death, no flesh can be justified by the deeds of the law.
Therefore, although God makes provision for these two parallel paths to Heaven, the preferred path is the pardon. The law path is fraught with failure (as you very know from painful experience). Besides, it is an all or none path to Heaven. In order to make it by the law, you cannot miss one of them, not once.
Take a moment to think back on your life for one month or even one day. You will immediately see the futility of travelling on that path to Heaven. It is available but it is worse than a maze. This path cannot get you there. Therefore, the preferable path to heaven is a no-brainer. I hope you will choose pardon, grace and blessings over law and curses.
Many Christians Choose The Wrong Path
It is quite possible that nothing much in what you have read to this point surprises you. Our churches are full of good people who know they need a pardon. They also know that Jesus obtained the needed pardon on the cross.
However, they are unable to simply ask and walk free. They believe they must perform some form of community service before they can be free. For instance, they must tithe; must pray; they must; must do this and the other.
Don’t get me wrong, these are acts of piety, all desirable for the believer to perform. Who would quarrel with praying and fasting? Unfortunately, a lot of Christians believe that their freedom is dependent on performance. Nothing can be further from the truth. Our freedom is dependent on the pardon which Jesus obtained.
These Two Paths To Heaven Are Parallel
During your time in math class, you probably learned that parallel lines will never meet. And that is precisely why one has to choose wisely between these two paths to Heaven. Unlike what some Christians would wish, you cannot walk both parallel paths. Because, while they both have the same destination, one is festooned with curses and the other with blessings.
In an earthly court, a criminal only needs to thank the judge after a pardon to walk free. If he stands there afterwards trying to convince the judge that he is a good man. he is in trouble. Such a criminal will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The judge will change his mind and send him back into captivity.
That is what performance-based Christianity represents. Jesus paid the price; he obtained the pardon. And yet, we often stand before God attempting to show evidence of our goodness. We are essentially trying to snatch bondage from the jaws of freedom. Paul puts it very well. “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?”
You Have Help On Your Way To Heaven
In an earlier post, we observed that the believer is above the law. Read more about it here. And the moment you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you get the Holy Spirit. He is part of the comprehensive pardon package.
You walk free out of Satan’s prison but you do not leave empty-handed. The Divine system gives you a little something to allow you settle down in your new freedom. The name of the ‘little something’ is the Holy Spirit.
He helps us recognize the futility of keeping the law. Scholars call it conviction. Then, we claim the Jesus-obtained pardon by inviting Jesus into our lives. Next, in gratitude for the pardon, we bow before the judge of Heaven and walk free, rejoicing. Then and only then, we go and find some community service to perform for the good of others. That is the order of events on this preferred of the two parallel paths to heaven.
Maranatha!
