Hello ICC Family!
Last week I wrote about the pain that it is to move house, but also the joy that comes with the thought of going to heaven - our final move. I read an article this week where the author was summarizing how we get to heaven, and he used a phrase that struck me… He said that heaven is available to us because God in Christ refused the glory he rightly deserved, in order to enter the hell and mud of our world to grab us and lead us into a new world of peace and flourishing and joy and contentment and laughter. All to be simply received and available to anyone who refuses to pay for it.
It is that last phrase that has stayed with me. If we want to enter heaven, we have to refuse to pay for it ourselves… It seems like we spend our entire lives trying to work out exactly what that means. The first thing to learn is that there is indeed a price to be paid. Not everybody is going to get in. Remember Jesus teaching about the gate and path leading to life being small and narrow? The wages of sin, the punishment, is death, Romans tells us. We can’t get to heaven in our current state because of the fact that if we were to enter as sinners, we would instantly corrupt it. It would no longer be a place of holiness and light and perfection. It would be stained with grief and exhaustion and tears and pain. And the only way to not ruin the state of heaven is to have our sin paid for.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
But then we have to learn that we can’t pay for it ourselves. Somebody that has the means has to pay for us. And the problem is that I hate being dependent on anyone. And I definitely don’t like being in debt to anyone. In college I had a friend that never - not once! - had his wallet with him. I bought so many Taco Bell bean burritos for him that even as cheap as they are… if I had all that money right now, Laurel and I could go on a pretty nice vacation. I would have been mortified to not be able to pay my own way! But none of us can think that way about eternity. The only way to get to heaven is to refuse to try to pay for it or get there on our own. Jesus is the only one worthy to pay the price for each of us. Only He lived a sinless and holy life. Only He could conquer death. Therefore, the only way to enter heaven is to let him pay for us. We have to be willing to be served completely. That requires us to be broken of our pride and our self-sufficiency. What a humbling truth! And what an amazing Savior!
Tonight and Sunday are the last opportunities to purchase tickets to ICC night at the RiverDogs baseball game on Friday, July 5th. Please see me if you are interested. There are still some that indicated interest on the survey that have not purchased their tickets yet.
Blessings to you all. And know that I’m praying for you!
Pastor Aaron
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