Sitting ready, I became aware of a little bird in my room. It was making fruitless efforts to escape. From wall to wall and against the closed window it dashed. At last it escaped through the back of the house. Poor little thing, how frightened it was of me! It had no relish for the near company of a human being.
I said to myself: "This is just how a sinner would feel, could he get into heaven unsaved. The presence of God would be intolerable. The poor man would be out of his element, and have no desires suitable to that holy place. His one thought would be to escape. Yet we hear people say: "Oh, of course, we all hope to go to heaven!”
WHAT IS HEAVEN? It is that holy abode where God in all His glory reveals the fullness of His love to those who "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. There the great multitude of the redeemed delight to raise their song of praise to "Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb forever." In heaven all believers in God's dear Son are conformed to His blest image; and there all is unsullied righteousness around and within each heart. Sin, sorrow, suffering, and death have no place there, and partings shall be no more. The presence of God and His Son make heaven home.
Would heaven be home to you, my reader?
To be at home in God's company you must possess divine fitness and divine affections; else you would only be miserable there, like the little bird in my room.
You could not join in heaven's song of praise to the Lord Jesus: "Thou art worthy." You would have nothing to praise Him for. The very heavens we see shall pass away (Matt. 24:3); the earth we live in shall be burned up; and there shall be new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3.)
Where will you be then, reader?
"There shall in no wise enter into it" (the holy city) "anything that defileth." Rev. 21:37.
If you are not washed in the Savior's blood, your presence in heaven would defile it. You cannot have a place inside. "Without" (outside) "are dogs"—unclean things. (Rev. 22:15.) In that state you must live forever "outside heaven, inside hell," where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 22:13.)
There is no middle place for respectable sinners. There is no rest in hell, and no back door out of it. (Mark 9:43-48.)
God's judgment now hangs over this guilty world, as once it did over Egypt and its rebellious king.
God said, "I will execute judgment: I am the Lord." Ex. 12:12. He did then, and He will do so again. Now He lingers in long-suffering grace in order to save.
God sent His beloved Son into the world to die to prove His love to man. Man showed his hatred of God by crucifying His Son. (Acts 4:24-28.)
God will never pass sin by unpunished; so in righteousness He poured out His wrath against it on the sinless One—made Him to be sin for us. Now sin has been judged to the uttermost; for Christ has died, established God's righteousness, and made it available for every one that believes. God is just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. (Rom. 3:26.)
This is the only fitness which will avail with God to save a sinner from hell, and take him to heaven, for it is provided by Himself, and in His grace flows to us through a righteous channel, even through the crucified, risen Lord, and is possessed by the believer. So-called "good works" will not save. "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. 4:5.
Faith in Christ and the cleansing power of His blood shed on Calvary for sinners can alone justify one before God. Faith in Christ gives fitness and access to the Father, who hath made us (believers) meet (that is, fit) to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col. 1:12.)
Believe God's record (1 John 5:11), and you will be happy now in His presence, for His perfect love casteth out fear. (1 John 4:18.) You will love Him because He first loved you, and His love will be shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Rom. 5:5.) Heaven is home to you, dear sinner, saved by grace. There you will sing the song that begins on earth: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,... to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Rev. 1:5, 6.
"Blessed are they that wash their robes (R. V.), that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city." (Rev. 22:14.)
"CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO
THE WORLD TO SAVE
SINNERS.”
1 Tim. 1:15.
"Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us.”
Titus 3:5.