A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
The bride’s grandmother and I sat in the very back of the church watching the wedding rehearsal. Donna and I had just met, and we were thoroughly enjoying getting acquained. We talked quietly so we wouldn’t disturb anyone. Since it was a solemn occasion, our conversation naturally turned to spiritual matters.
Donna said, “As long as I keep the ten commandments, I feel like I’ll go to Heaven.”
“My problem,” I said, “is that I can’t even keep the first commandment, let alone all the others. I do love God, I really do, but I don’t know how to love Him with all my heart and soul and mind and strength.”
I thought through the other commandments, and congratulated myself. “Well, there’e one commandment I haven’t broken. I haven’t murdered anybody.” But then I remembered that Jesus said if I hated someone it was as bad as murdering them. So I had to say to Donna, “We sure can’t get to Heaven by keeping the ten commandments.” And that is what God told us in Romans 3:19,20:
The purpose [of the ten commandments] is
to keep people from having excuses,
and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.
For no one can ever be made right with God
by doing what the law commands.
The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
That’s the bad news: we simply cannot make ourselves good enough to get to Heaven by keeping rules. The ten commandments only teach us we cannot earn Heaven by being good; they don’t make us good. They actually condemn us!
The good news is that God never intended for us to try to earn our way to Heaven by being good. He gave His dear loved Son, Jesus, to die in our place, to give us His righteousness, to make us fit for Heaven. So verses 21-24 of Romans 3 say,
But now the righteousness of God
has been manifested apart from the law . . .
Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And are justified by His grace as a gift,
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
“Donna,” I cried, “see how wonderful it is. God doesn’t want us to try to earn Heaven! He wants us to take His gift of everlasting life, just by trusting Jesus!”
And that’s why we don’t need to be afraid of the ten commandments. Jesus paid the debt of our sins on the cross, and He offers us everlasting life simply by trusting Him. Since I belong to Him, He helps me to do right, to do what I can’t do by myself.”
No, trying to earn Heaven by keeping the rules doesn’t work. It’s by the grace of the Lord Jesus, who gave me eternal life because He paid for all those sins I couldn’t pay for.
