Right in the centre - He has risen, he has risen indeed
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- Published on Thursday, April 17, 2025
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
Every aspect of life shows us that we should be good, that is to behave in a proper fashion. People praise each other by saying, “they are a good person.” That’s important but it also leads to a false concept that says if you are good, if you live a good life, you will go to Heaven when you die. It’s a widely accepted concept. Be good or you won’t go to Heaven.
That concept of being good is valuable to individuals, to families and to society but being good doesn’t get us to Heaven. A person can never be good enough to enter Heaven. Entrance to Heaven is dependent on accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Jesus lived so we might have an example of how to live. His teaching is amazing, tested by time and it shows us how to live. But I believe it’s not his life that saves us from Hell and offers us an entrance to Heaven, it’s his death. Jesus died and rose again so that we might enter Heaven, but there’s one provison.
In the Bible it says in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” New International Version
We certainly should follow what Jesus says about living but we need to accept not just his teaching about life but accept the last half of the above verse, the part about “believes in him”.
Righteousness comes through faith
Romans 3:21-24 “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” –New International Version
If you can accept Romans 3:21-24, then no one can ever be “good enough” to get to heaven but our sins are covered by Jesus’s sacrificial death. It’s the best deal ever offered to people in all of history.
A long passed friend of mine would say, “There’s a Heaven to gain and a Hell to shun.”
Throughout history, people have been organizing groups. Working groups, political groups, armies, war machines and yes, religious groups. Religious groups have worked very hard to make their chosen system hard to understand, hard to achieve success within the respective systems. Religion is described as “a particular system of faith and worship.” May I add another definition? Religion is a system where humans strive to reach out to God. Christianity is where God reaches out to humans. I am not a big fan of religion but I am certainly a big fan of God and Jesus. I am thankful every day for God reaching out to me, to my family and to all people.
People are free to believe whatever they want. Some say there are many roads to heaven. I believe there is just one and that is “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
This Easter weekend, may you bask in the light and glory of God’s mercy to us as we embrace the commemoration of the risen Jesus.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.
