Are you qualified?

"giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." -Colossians 1:12

Reader, are you qualified today?

We understand the phrase "to be qualified" from our daily vernacular. We must qualify for loans, for homes, for events, for jobs, for sports teams, etc. There's a multitude of things we must meet certain criteria for or we will fail to qualify.

It has been a popular human belief, really since the dawn of human existence, that man deserves to go to heaven based upon his/her own merit or goodness. We will quickly compare ourselves to others - our deeds, thoughts, speech - aiming to prove we are 'better than the next guy.' We create standards of morality in our own minds, and hearts and based upon those standards we then determine who is 'good' and who is 'bad' in society. Once those determinations have been made, we qualify some and disqualify others based upon what we feel the finish line or goal is.

We qualify ourselves and other people all the time.

I'm not the greatest evangelist in the world, but on the majority of occasions when I have shared the Gospel with someone, the individual feels he/she should go to heaven. When I ask them why they feel that way, they believe its because they are 'a good person.' Most of us think we are good, moral people. Why do we think that? Because we compare ourselves to others and we can always seem to find someone else we are morally better than, according to our own standards of 'goodness' that is.

For example, most people who believe they are good enough to get to heaven will site that they have lied or stolen before, but they have never murdered or raped, therefore, they believe they are better and holier than the murderer or the rapist.

In other words, they have qualified themselves for heaven based upon their own merits. They have also disqualified the murderer or rapist based upon theirs.

Scripture is abundantly clear that no one is qualified to enter heaven because no one meets the standard of holiness God has set forth in His Law (Rom. 3:23).

The standard we all must reach to qualify for heaven is absolute moral perfection - in other words - we must keep the entire Law of God perfectly without one failed attempt (Jam. 2:10).

Thus, we now have a clear purpose for the mission of Jesus Christ. Jesus, God in the flesh, had to come to us, fulfill the full Law perfectly, then complete that fulfillment by also becoming the last, once and for all, blood sacrifice. Jesus' life and completed work fulfilled all of the moral, ceremonial and civil Law requirements for us.

Now, all are called to repent of their sin, turn to Jesus for forgiveness (Savior) and confess Him as Lord of our lives. We must trust in Him and Him alone - that He fulfilled the Law and died on our behalf, that He rose again back to life, and that He alone can/will save us through faith.

When it comes to being qualified for citizenship in heaven, all of us fall short.

Yet, we can become qualified if we repent and turn to Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.

It is through faith in Jesus that disqualified sinners become qualified saints!