The Signposts Leading To Heaven

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
–Romans 3:23

How can you make sure that you are on the highway that leads to Heaven and not on the highway that leads to Hell?

Let’s suppose you live in Oklahoma, and you decide you would like to take a road trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba. So you get on the highway and start driving. Before long, you see a sign that says, “Dallas 100 miles.” You go a little further and see another sign that says, “Houston 300 miles.” Then you go a little further and see a billboard that says, “Enjoy a luxurious night at the Holiday Inn in Laredo, Texas.” What conclusion do you draw? The fact is, you are headed in the wrong direction. You sincerely believed you were headed north, but in spite of your sincerity, you were headed south.

The same thing is true for some of us about our eternal destination. There are many people who sincerely believe they are going to Heaven. They sincerely follow other ways to Heaven, such as Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. But it does not matter how sincere you are; you can be sincerely wrong. How can you know if you are on the road to Heaven? There are four signposts you can check to see if you are on the road that will end up in Heaven. We will look at each of them this week.

Signpost #1 is: We have a sin problem. When most people see this signpost, they refuse to go any further. They say, “I do not like being called a sinner. That is insulting to me.” So when they see that sign, they say, “I am getting on a different road.”

But the fact is, God says we are all sinners. Romans 3:10-12 says, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” And then the climax is verse 23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” How many good people are there in the world? How many people are righteous? The word “righteous” means “in a right standing with God.” Whom does God look at and say, “That is a really good person”? None. No one is righteous according to God’s perfect standard. Some have sinned more than others, but we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s plan for our life.

Paul went on to say in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.” The payment for sin is not just physical death but spiritual death. That word “death” in Greek means “separation.” Just as physical death is the separation of the body from the spirit, eternal death is the separation of the spirit from God. We all deserve that sentence, because we have all sinned before God. We inherited a virus called sin, and the Bible says because of that we are all guilty before God.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Who Will Be In Heaven?” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2016.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.lockman.org)