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⁶ But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’”^[a] (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’”^[b] (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^[c] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

– Romans 10:6-10

Christians have a terrible habit of trying to pick who gets to go to Heaven.  We also have a terrible habit of condemning those we think are going to Hell.  But Paul’s words are clear to the Romans: That’s not our job.

You see, as humans, we have a propensity for weighting sins.  We’ve become very good at it. We like to think that one sin is worse than another.  And even as we quote our Sunday School teachers that, “All sins are equal in God’s eyes,” our hearts and actions betray this simple truth.

The terrible irony is that this self-righteous pride so common in the believer’s heart was enough to separate us from God.  It was part of the cost of our salvation.  We like to add up the accounts of our neighbors, while we blindly add stones to our own scale.  We forget that the time for judgement has not arrived, yet.

Luckily we are under the new covenant of Grace, and not the Law.  And it is such good news for the believer.  Unfortunately, that’s where the good news stops. Believers.  We are so busy guessing who will go to Heaven and who will go to Hell, that we miss the whole point. No matter what anyone does… let me say it again for more emphasis… No matter what anyone does, if they declare with their mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in their heart that God raised them from the dead, they will be saved.

It’s so simple, but we’ve made it so complicated.  We play these hypothetical games in our minds that say, “Well Sadam Hussein was a very bad man.  Surely he wasn’t saved.”  What if we see him in Heaven?  What if he is right next to us singing praises to God?  Does that thought make us cringe or rejoice?

I thank God that He has prepared a way for all men to call on Him and be saved by His infinite Grace.  So when we see sin in this world let us not stop and celebrate our own coming inheritance, but extend the Grace that is efficient to cover every sin so that, someday, we may all celebrate together in the presence of God.