The question we cannot escape

Perhaps now we can understand the title differently. What will you take to heaven? At first, the question sounds like a question about possessions. But it is not. It is a question about character. What are you becoming? Who are you becoming? What is being formed in your heart?

What happens when nobody is watching? How do you respond when you are hurt? How do you respond when corrected? How do you treat people who cannot benefit you? How do you behave when you are tempted? Can you forgive? Can you admit that you are wrong? Can you serve without recognition? Can you obey when obedience costs you? Can you surrender your will to God? These questions are uncomfortable. They are supposed to be. Because Christianity is not merely about asking, “What do I believe?” It is also asking, “What am I becoming?”

The most important question

There is, however, one question underneath all the others. It is not, “Am I good enough?” You will never be. It is not, “Have I done enough?” You never will. It is not, “Have I earned heaven?” You cannot. The question is: “Do I know Jesus, and have I surrendered my life to Him?” Because if Christ has your heart, He has access to your character. And if He has access to your character, He can begin His work. Jesus said, in His prayer to the Father:

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Jesus defines eternal life in terms of knowing God. Not merely knowing about Him. Knowing Him. Walking with Him. Trusting Him. Loving Him. Surrendering to Him. And allowing Him to transform you. This is also why He warned that some who do many religious things will hear, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23). The final issue is a relationship.

The thief on the cross

Someone reading this book may be thinking: what about a person who has no time left? What about the one who comes to Christ at the very end of life, with no years in which character could be formed? The Gospels give us a person in exactly that position. Two criminals were crucified beside Jesus. One joined the mockery. The other answered him:

Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

This man did nothing that could be called a life of character. He had no time for the slow work of years. And Jesus did not say, “Come back when you have improved.” He said, “Today.” Salvation is the gift of grace. We should never use this book to tell anyone that their time is too short, or their record too long.

Yet notice what was already beginning in the thief’s last hours. He stopped joining the mockery. He confessed that his sentence was just. He acknowledged that Jesus was innocent. And he turned to Him. Those are the first beginnings of a changed character: honesty, humility and trust. Grace does not wait for a transformed character. It begins the transformation, whether the time given is long or short.

Everything counted as loss

Paul gives the answer from the other end of a long life. After describing all that he had counted on, he writes of what he now wants:

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Notice the first words: “that I may know Him.” After all his accomplishments, his deepest desire was to know Christ and to be conformed to Him. That is the heart of the question we cannot escape. It is answered not by a list, but by a Person.