Pearly Gates

A man dies and meets St. Peter at the pearly gates. Peter tells him he has to get clearance before he’s admitted.

“What does that take?” the man asks.

“You need at least 500 points to get in,” Peter tells him.

“Well,” the man says, “I was a dedicated husband, father, and employee. I never cheated on my wife, my boss, or the IRS.”

“Hmm,” Peter calculates. “That’s good for a hundred.”

“A hundred! That’s all?” the man exclaims. “Let’s see. I gave money to the United Way, volunteered weekly at a soup kitchen, rang the Salvation Army bell every winter, and spent a week’s vacation every summer building houses for the poor in Central America.”

“Okay,” Peter says, tapping away on the calculator. “You’re up to about three hundred and fifty.”

The man panics. He can’t think of anything other great deeds or sacrifices he did to make up the deficit. He’ll never get into heaven.

“That’s it,” he says sadly. “I throw myself on the mercy of God.”

“You’re in!” Peter says and throws open the gate. “Welcome home.”

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:7-11 [NIV])

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (Eph 2:7-11 [MSG]

It is all due what what God does, not what we do. You are enough not because you are enough, but because God is.

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