What will you take to heaven?

Now we return to the question with which we began. What will you take to heaven? You will not take your house. You will not take your car. You will not take your bank account. You will not take your business. You will not take your earthly title. You will not take your reputation. You will not take your possessions. You will not even take the things you thought made you important.

But there is something far more significant. The character Christ has formed in you matters eternally. The love. The faith. The humility. The patience. The purity. The honesty. The self-control. The compassion. The faithfulness. The willingness to serve. The willingness to forgive. The willingness to surrender. These are not things we earn salvation with. They are the fruit of salvation. They reveal that Christ has been doing His work in us.

We began the book with the sentence from Revelation that gives the question its meaning. A voice from heaven says that those who die in the Lord rest from their labours, “and their works follow them” (Revelation 14:13). The works do not buy the rest. They follow the people who rest.

Judgement and the evidence of grace

Scripture presents a sobering reality: God’s judgement takes our lives seriously. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Yet this does not mean that human goodness becomes the price of salvation. Salvation remains grounded in the grace of God and the finished work of Christ.

Why, then, does Scripture speak about what people have done? Because works reveal the direction and reality of a person’s life. Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 7:16-20). Paul wrote that God “will render to each one according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6). Revelation likewise speaks of the dead being judged “according to their works” (Revelation 20:12).

Works are therefore not the foundation on which we purchase salvation. They are evidence of what grace has produced in us. A living faith does not remain barren. Christ changes the life He has entered. This is why the character question matters. The question is not, “Have I become good enough for heaven?” The question is, “Is Christ truly transforming me?” The first question points towards self-reliance. The second points back to Christ.

Clothed by grace

Zechariah saw a vision that shows the order. Joshua the high priest stood before the Angel of the LORD in filthy garments, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The accuser was rebuked, and then:

Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

Joshua did not clean his own clothes. The garments were removed and the robes were given. Revelation uses the same picture when it describes the bride of the Lamb:

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Notice the word “granted.” The linen is called the righteous acts of the saints, and it was given to her. This must never be turned into a claim that human righteousness purchases salvation. Christ is the source of salvation, and the transformed life is its visible fruit.

The body will be changed, and the work of character is happening now

Scripture also gives us an important distinction concerning the resurrection. Paul teaches that the corruptible body will be raised incorruptible:

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

The resurrection therefore includes a glorious transformation of the body. He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). But the work of Christlike character is not postponed until that day. The Holy Spirit is doing that work in us now. At His coming, Christ will transform our mortal bodies. Through His Spirit, He is transforming our character today.

We are not waiting for heaven to make us ready for heaven. God is preparing us now for life with Him. The resurrection will complete what Christ promises to do with our bodies; the sanctifying work of grace is shaping our lives and character now. We should never confuse character with a payment for salvation. We do not earn resurrection by becoming good enough. Salvation is God’s gift through Christ. Character is the fruit of that saving relationship, the evidence that His grace is actually doing its transforming work in us.

Peter’s list: faith that grows

Peter describes how this growth looks:

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice where Peter begins. The previous verses say that God’s divine power “has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). Everything is given, and then we are asked to give diligence. Peter ends with a promise: “for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). The entrance is supplied. It is not earned.

Historical Christian voices on character

Throughout Christian history, theologians, reformers and pastors have repeatedly returned to a similar conviction: outward achievements are temporary, while the moral and spiritual life being formed in a person has lasting significance. These voices do not establish Christian doctrine, since that authority belongs to Scripture. But they provide a useful historical witness to an idea that this book has drawn directly from the Bible: God is not merely concerned with what we accomplish, possess or profess. He is concerned with what we are becoming in Christ.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). In A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, Edwards listed signs that do and do not prove that religious feeling is genuine. His twelfth and last sign is that gracious affections bear fruit in Christian practice, which he called the chief sign of grace, both to others and to ourselves. For Edwards, a changed heart should increasingly produce a changed life. This reinforces the biblical pattern of faith expressing itself through love and obedience, while keeping grace as the source rather than making works the ground of salvation.

John Calvin (1509-1564). Calvin distinguished justification from sanctification and insisted that they cannot be separated in the believer who is united to Christ. In the Institutes, he wrote that Christ justifies no one whom He does not at the same time sanctify (Book III, chapter 16, section 1). For Calvin, the righteousness by which we are accepted before God is Christ’s righteousness, not our character; yet union with Christ necessarily brings the transforming work of sanctification. Character does not purchase salvation, but saving union with Christ is never intended to leave character unchanged.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963). In Mere Christianity, Book III, Lewis described the cumulative effect of daily choices: each moral choice gradually makes the person who is choosing into something slightly different. His point fits closely with the biblical principle that repeated choices form habits, and with this book’s discussion of the ordinary moments in which character is formed.

Dallas Willard (1935-2013). In The Divine Conspiracy and his wider work on spiritual formation, Willard emphasised that discipleship is not merely about agreeing with Christian truth but about becoming the kind of person whose life increasingly reflects Christ. Spiritual formation, properly understood, is not self-improvement detached from grace. It is the ongoing work of becoming Christlike through life with God.

A. W. Tozer (1897-1963). In The Pursuit of God and related writings, Tozer challenged the difference between outward religious appearance and the inner reality of a life surrendered to God. He emphasised secret devotion, obedience, humility and the knowledge of God. Public reputation and religious activity can never substitute for a heart being transformed by God.

A common thread. Different traditions use different theological language, and they do not agree on every doctrine. Yet these writers share a significant point of contact: Christian faith is not merely a profession made with the lips. Grace produces transformation. Faith bears fruit. Choices shape character. Union with Christ leads to a life increasingly marked by holiness, love, humility, obedience and service. These voices are witnesses, not authorities equal to Scripture. The foundation of this book remains the biblical testimony: we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, not by our works; yet the grace that saves also calls, teaches and transforms us.

Selected sources: Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (Part III, twelfth sign); John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III; C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book III, chapters 2-4; Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy; A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God.

The right order

The order matters. We are not accepted by God because our character has become good enough. We are accepted through Christ. But the grace that forgives also transforms. The character Christ forms does not replace the cross; it demonstrates the fruit of the cross at work in the believer. Therefore, when we ask, “What will you take to heaven?”, the answer should never be, “My good character will get me there.” The answer is: “Christ is my Saviour, and the character He forms in me is evidence that I have been learning to live in fellowship with Him.”

What Scripture says about what endures

The expression “character is all that we take with us to heaven” should not be presented as a quotation from Scripture. It is a theological summary, and the Bible gives us the foundation for it. First, earthly possessions do not accompany us beyond this life: “we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Timothy 6:7), and Psalm 49:16-17 makes the same point about wealth and honour. Second, Scripture repeatedly speaks of an inward transformation that is being carried forward into the life God is preparing for His people: the new man “renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10), and believers “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Third, Revelation uses clothing as a picture of the redeemed, as we have seen, and the linen is granted. Finally, Revelation 21:27 describes the New Jerusalem as a place into which nothing impure enters. The emphasis is not on earthly status, possessions or achievement, but on belonging to the Lamb and being cleansed from the character of sin.

So the biblical conclusion is careful but profound: we do not earn heaven by developing character, but the character Christ forms in us matters because heaven is not merely a change of address. It is the eternal kingdom of God, and God is preparing His people for life in that kingdom.

God wants us there

This must never become a message of fear without hope. God wants us in His kingdom. Jesus said:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Jesus is preparing a place. But He is also preparing a people. And both preparations matter.