Coco Calling No.148 - Putting the “C” Into Christianity

During the last few days I’ve been thinking very deeply. Yes, I’ve been gently rocking on my perch in quiet cogitation. Thinking about whether God’s pleased with me, and whether I’m good enough to get into Heaven. It’s a question which a lot of us will ask at some stage in our lives, especially as we get that little bit older.

There was once a human Sunday School teacher who decided to put this very question to her group of children. She asked them:

“If I sold my house and car and all of my possessions and gave all of the money to charity, would that be enough to get me into Heaven?”

“No!” the children shouted back.

“If I attended church every single Sunday throughout my life, visited the sick and elderly and gave up my spare time to volunteer in the local foodbank, would that be enough to get me into Heaven?”

“No!” yelled the children louder than ever.

Hoping that someone was about to bring up Jesus’ role in all this, she asked them:

“So what would I still need to do?”

“You’ve got to die first!” came the reply.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Not quite the answer that was expected. But of course, in a way they were right. To get to Heaven, we’ve all got to die first. Because in death, we cast off our old impurity allowing us to be made new again. Re-born and resurrected through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us all on the cross.

None of us can ever get to heaven through our own good deeds or through lives well lived. Because even the very best of us are still corrupted by sin. If we were to be let loose in Heaven just as we are, we would contaminate the place and spoil it for everyone already there. So we really do have to die to be made new again. And this is why the letter “C” is so important to Christians. The “C” of Christ and the “C” of the cross. Because both are crucial to our Christian destiny.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

“You cannot go to Heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell.” (Joyce Meyer: American evangelist).

So there you have it. A human or a parrot may go to Heaven without health and without riches, without honour or glory, without intellect or learning, and without status or friends. But we can never get there without Christ and the cross! And I think that answer was worth three days of cogitation on my perch!

#cross #Christianity #Heaven