Mario's Major Mistake

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. 4:6).

Mario thought he would go to heaven when he dies.  When I politely asked why he believed that, his answer revealed he was making a major, eternal-life-threatening mistake.  "I try to do the right thing," Mario explained.  Like so many others, Mario was blindly walking toward an eternal cliff oblivious to the grave danger that lie ahead should he die in his sins, mistakenly trusting in his "good" works to save him from the justice to come (2 Cor. 5:10).

The Bible makes clear, however, that none of us will enter heaven by our own "good" works.  "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us ..." (Titus 3:5).  In fact, the Bible emphasizes that there is none good enough to enter God's presence, not even one (Rom. 3:10).  If we could enter heaven by our own good works, then God would have had no need to send his Son, Jesus Christ, to die a substitutionary death to bear the full weight of divine justice on our behalf in order that we might receive the undeserved mercy of God.

I explained to Mario what the Bible says about the Day of Judgment to come, about God's perfect impartial justice that will be imposed on all those who have violated His moral law, and Mario honestly admitted he has broken God's commands "millions of times," using Mario's own words.

I asked Mario if he'd like to know what God did in order that Mario might be spared from divine justice and receive God's rich mercy in order to enter heaven for eternity.  He wanted to know, so I explained to him that Jesus said he must "repent and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).  The gospel, or good news, is that Jesus "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3-4). 

The righteousness or perfection we need to enter the presence of a holy God for eternity comes exclusively through believing or faith "in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses [sins] and raised for our justification [that we might be considered "just" or "right" in God's sight]" (Rom. 4:24).

I urged Mario to repent--turn to God in his heart and cry out to God for forgiveness of all of his sins, past, present, and future--and to believe that Jesus died for his sins once and for all and was raised for Mario's justification.  I hope Mario did so or will do so before his time (his eternal cliff) comes.