Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

If You Hope to Have Life after Death (Heaven),There is One Thing You Must Have

By Dr. Richard P. Bucher

In the information age we are deluged by a tidal wave of information. Pick any subject, any topic, and it is guaranteed that you will find more information, much of it contradictory and confusing, than you care to find.

The subject of religion is no exception. Never before have we had access to so much information about so many religions, denominations, and sects. So many schools of thought from so many self-declared religious authorities. To call it confusing is an understatement. Such sensory overload lead some to despair of ever finding certain religious truth. This is especially and painfully obvious when it comes to the topic of life after death. Anyone who has done even a little research in this area knows that many contradictory answers are given to the question about how to get there. It can be very confusing and frustrating.

This tract is written to encourage you and to tell you that it is not as hopelessly confusing as it seems. The fact is, God wants you to be with Him after death, in heaven, forever. The fact is, God has spoken rather clearly about how to get there. In his written revelation to humankind, he tells us that one thing, and only one thing, is needed. If you have this one thing in your possession when you die, you will enter Life and be with God forever. If you do not have it when you die, you will forfeit this glorious Life to come forever.

What is this one thing? It is something you have probably heard of before but didn't understand. It is a major theme in the Scriptures of God. It is righteousness.

I. Righteousness - What is It?

In the Bible, the word "righteousness" is used in a religio-legal sense. It means, very simply, "perfect conformity to the Law of God; perfection, sinlessness." Someone who has righteousness, then, is one who has kept God's commandments perfectly.

II. Righteousness - Who Has It?

With such a steep definition of righteousness, who, if anyone, has it? God does. This the Scriptures declare repeatedly. Psalm 97:6 asserts, "The heavens declare His righteousness (Hebrew - tsedeq)."And Psalm 119:142 announces, "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness." That God has righteousness means that He perfectly keeps the laws He established. He is sinless and perfect in all that He does. And He expects every human being to be righteous, just as He Himself is. "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy,"(Lev. 19:2) He says in the Old Testament; "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect," (Matthew 5:48) He says in the New Testament.

He has every right to expect this, for when God created man in the beginning, He gave him righteousness so that the man was righteous. Our first parents kept God's commandments perfectly and were without sin (see Genesis 1:26-2:25). It was on the basis of this righteousness, moreover, that they had intimate fellowship with God.

Tragically, however, when they disobeyed God, they forfeited their righteousness. By their one act of disobedience the righteousness they had was lost. In it's place came fallenness, the fallenness of death, corruption, and the condemnation of an angry God (see Romans 5:12,18-19). Fallenness that carried with it the bitter reality of separation from God (Genesis 3:23-24; Isaiah 59:1-2).

Ever since, humankind has been without righteousness. This is the verdict of God's written revelation: "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10); "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). No one has righteousness because no one is without sin: "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20); "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8); "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

III. Righteousness - Why Do We Need It?

So what? Does it really make any difference whether we have righteousness or not? The greatest possible difference. In no uncertain terms, God has revealed in the Scriptures that all humanity will one day be judged: "it is appointed for men to die once, but after this is the judgment . . ." (Hebrews 9:27 NASB; for a fuller description of "Judgment Day" see Matthew 25:31- 46 and Rev. 20:11-15). And the standard by which God will judge every person is righteousness: "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31; See also Psalm 9:8; 96:13; 98:9).

God is going to judge each of us on the basis of righteousness. What does this mean? It means that God will compare our lives to righteousness (perfection, sinlessness). Whoever's life is not found to be righteous will not enter Life but will be condemned. The Bible states: "do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" (1 Cor. 6:9). And, if we don't enter heaven, according to Jesus Christ there is only one other possible fate. "so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear (Matthew 13:40-43).

IV. Righteousness - How Do We Get It?

Do you now see the importance of righteousness? With it we will enter into the unlimited joy of paradise forever. Without it we will forfeit all joy forever. Is there a way to get righteousness? Yes! But one thing is certain: we can't get righteousness on the basis of our own piety or goodness.

We cannot earn righteousness by attempting to keep God's Laws or man-made ones. Not doing the best we can, church attendance, charity, niceness, nor any other good thing that WE do will bring us righteousness. Why not? Because righteousness is the perfect keeping of God's Law. Something none of us has done or can do.

But there is another way to get righteousness -- not ours, but Someone Else's. In fact this is what Christianity is all about. The apostle Paul focuses on this as he anguishes over his fellow Jews. "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (Romans 10:1-4). Earlier in the same letter Paul affirms the same truth: "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe" (Romans 3:22).

In His wisdom, God knew that humankind on their own could never regain the righteousness lost in Eden. So in His incredible mercy, He sent His righteous Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might have His righteousness, the righteousness of God Himself. The heart of the Christian Gospel (good news) is this: when Jesus was nailed to the cross, an amazing trade off occurred. Our unrighteousness (sins) were charged to Him and He suffered the punishment we deserved. His righteousness was credited to us who believe in Him as personal Savior and we gained the Life that we didn't deserve. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21); and "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6).

It is faith in Jesus that wins us His righteousness, not our attempts to keep God's commandments. "For we maintain that a man is justified (Greek - dikaioo, declared righteous) by faith apart from observing the law" (Romans 3:28; see also Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-10).All who believe that Jesus did this for them, who believe that the righteousness we need comes only through Jesus, are covered with Christ's righteousness. As Isaiah says, they are covered with a "robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10) that completely covers their sin. Everyone covered with Christ's righteousness is considered righteous by God. When He examines them, all He sees is the righteousness of His Son that covers them.

V. Righteousness - You Can Have It Today!

You can have Christ's righteousness and be assured of eternal Life after death today. If you admit your inability to achieve your own righteousness, confess your sins to God, and believe that Jesus died for your sins, His righteousness is yours! Throw away your dirty and tattered robe of works righteousness and clothe yourself in Christ's. Trust in Christ's righteousness, not your own, and you will experience perfect Life with God after death. His righteousness is the one thing you need.

Only Christianity teaches this. All other religions without exception direct the person to manufacture their own righteousness to achieve life after death. Only Christianity says it is through the gift of God's righteousness in Jesus Christ that we enter that Life.

Does this sound too simple? Remember that God revels in this: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: `I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:18-22).

If you have received Christ's righteousness by reading this tract, you have become a Christian. Now seek out a local congregation that teaches this righteousness for further Biblical instruction and holy Baptism. God bless you!