Steps to heaven
Steps to heaven
When taking the journey along the paths of righteousness, what are the true steps one should take? In this lesson, we examine the first steps on that path that leads to eternal life. Each step involves something that we should have done, and would have done, had we walked the perfect path.
Illustration: A person who has been eating wrongly, and become obese, will correct the problem by following the right eating habits of fit and healthy people. Strange and abnormal diets or “cures” just confuse the body, and if continued lead the body to more ruin.
In the same way, the sin-laden soul is not released from the burden of sin and brought back to spiritual life by a set of strange steps unlike those of the perfect path. The corrective path of conversion consists of carefully and prayerfully doing what righteous people do. You regain spiritual life by the same steps you would have taken anyway had you maintained spiritual life and never left the perfect path.
We are taught quite clearly in (Rom 10:4-18) that faith in Christ is the only way to be saved and have eternal life. And how can one believe in Christ? Only by hearing the gospel of Christ (Rom 10:17). The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes it (Rom 1:16). Anyone who is dead in sin can become alive to God again only by hearing the gospel.
Peter refers to the gospel as "things into which angels long to look" (1Pe 1:10-12). If angels have a longing for the gospel, surely human beings should. One who has never sinned will hunger and thirst for the word of him who "enlightens every man coming into the world" (Jhn 1:4,9). One who is walking the perfect path would never say, "I am not interested in the gospel; it has nothing to say to me; it is for sinners only". Rather one would say, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psa 119:105).
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Only those who believe in God and his Son shall "not perish but have everlasting life" (Jhn 3:16). Believing in oneself is fine as far as it goes, but it certainly won't get you to heaven. Nobody, saint or sinner, is justified by his own works, but by faith in Christ Jesus the righteous.
We are born with spiritual life, but we are not born with faith. We were, however born to have it. HeGod is pleased enough with us when we are first brought into the world, just as he was pleased enough with all things he brought into the world, whether bird, fish, tree, beast, or insect. He saw that everything was "very good" (Gen 1:31). The difference between us and a tree, however, is that God never expects a tree to hear, understand, and believe the gospel. But he does expect that of human beings.
When by God’s grace we grow old enough to understand God’s word and believe, then God expects and encourages us to do so. Jesus attributed a faith in him even to little children (Mtt 18:1-7). He viewed this early faith as very precious in God’s sight, for he says that anyone is wicked indeed who causes little children to stumble from their faith.
Just as it is not long before we grow old enough to hear and believe, so it is not long thereafter before we grow old enough to sin. One cannot resist sin on one's own, but only through trusting in Christ, for he said, "Without me you can do nothing" (Jhn 15:5). We cannot be righteous without Christ, and that is true even before we ever commit our first sin. In this world, even one who walks the perfect path is tempted; and especially so. Therefore one ought not to trust in self, but trust completely in Jesus. Faith in Christ, our merciful high Priest, is just as essential to resisting sin, as it is to being forgiven of sin (Heb 2:16-18, Heb 4:14-16).
What is the point of believing in Christ if you are not going to turn your back on sin?
Peter told sinners to "Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19). He told a convert who had backslidden to "Repent... and pray the Lord that if possible the intention of your heart might be forgiven you" (Acts 8:22-23).
The commands to repent quoted above were to people who had sinned. One cannot be forgiven of a sin that one still wants to do. Until we recognise the wrong we have done, and make up our minds to get rid of that wrong through Jesus, the gate is shut to the path of conversion.
Is repentance applicable only to those who have sinned? You might say yes, because one cannot be sorry for sins one has not committed. Repentance, however, is not just feeling sorry. The word means a change of mind. Now when is the best time to change your mind about sin? After you have committed it, while you are being tempted to commit it, or before you are even tempted?
Illustration: Suppose you were thinking that you might walk past the orchard today, and you were also thinking that, as you walk by, you might steal an apple? Which would you rather do?
Surely the first is not the best. If you did one of the others, wouldn't that also be a change of mind? What if you consider committing a sin, but change your mind and decide not to? Haven't you repented, and in the best possible way? Yes, and if you had always repented in this manner, you would never have committed sin.
Thus we see that repentance is not a one-off event just before we are baptized, but an attitude and effort of mind that is a constant "ought" throughout our lives. All repentance is commendable, but the most commendable of all is perfect path repentance, which occurs before the sin is ever committed.
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