{"id":4869,"date":"2025-09-08T08:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4869"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:22:10","slug":"hoping-for-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/08\/hoping-for-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoping for Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

As a general rule, I hesitate to make comments about the President of the United States.

Over the past 10 years, I believe I\u2019ve mentioned Donald Trump just five times.

That\u2019s a shame, because he is not only the most powerful human being on the planet, but unquestionably the most quotable. Readers seem genuinely grateful, however, that Morning Reflections endeavors to be a politics-free zone \u2013 a break from the never-ending high profile clashes between Left and Right.

But because President Trump recently ventured into traditional theological territory, this feels like an opportune moment to provide a response from a biblical perspective.

During an August 19 interview with Fox & Friends<\/em>, the President reflected on his efforts to end the war in Ukraine. \u201cI wanna try and get to heaven if possible,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hearing I\u2019m not doing well\u2026 I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.\u201d\u00a0

He continued, \u201cIf I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that\u2019s a pretty\u2014I want to try and get to heaven if possible.\u201d

Online columnist Michael Ian Black spoke for many when he noted, \u201cIt\u2019s the most self-reflective thing I\u2019ve ever heard from the president, a surprising admission\u2026\u201d

Given the President\u2019s incessant social media commentary on virtually every subject under the sun \u2013 including windmills, flush toilets, reservoir water levels, and Hannibal Lecter \u2013 it came as something of a revelation that he also ponders what it might take to walk through the doors of Paradise.

On this important subject, the Bible couldn\u2019t be more clear.

Nobody gets into heaven on the Performance Plan.<\/em>

Granted, \u201cbeing a good person\u201d or \u201cdoing a lot of good things\u201d has become our culture\u2019s default position with regard to a happy outcome on the other side of death. If Santa Claus\u2019 job is to bring good gifts to nice children, God must also grade on the curve. Are you leaving behind a less-than-stellar moral track record? No need to fear. Heroic self-efforts can still tip the balance in your favor.

The New Testament, however, declares that no amount of heroic self-effort \u2013 whether extraordinary generosity, perfect Sunday School attendance, or negotiating the end of any number of wars \u2013 can ever earn us enough spiritual Brownie Points to stand in the presence of a holy God.

Here\u2019s how the apostle Paul puts it:

\u201c[Because of our spiritual brokenness] it\u2019s a wonder God didn\u2019t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us…

\u201c<\/sup><\/strong>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\u2019s God\u2019s gift from start to finish! We don\u2019t play the major role. If we did, we\u2019d probably go around bragging that we\u2019d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving\u201d (Ephesians 2:4-5, 7-9), The Message<\/em>).

From the standpoint of our culture, that seems outrageous. Unfair. Maybe even unjust. What kind of God chooses not to take our best efforts into account?

Here we need to acknowledge a trio of key biblical ideas: justice, mercy, and grace. \u00a0

Justice<\/strong> may be defined as getting what we deserve<\/em>.\u00a0

The world cries out for justice.\u00a0Abraham asked God, \u201cWill not the Judge of all the earth do right?\u201d (Genesis 18:25).\u00a0The implied answer is, “Of course.”\u00a0But when we plead for justice we must be wary of the consequences.\u00a0If we beg God to rid the world of every shred of evil at midnight tonight, not one of us would still be around at 12:01 am.

When it comes to where you stand personally with God, it\u2019s definitely not in your favor to demand justice.

Mercy<\/strong> is not<\/u><\/em>getting what we deserve<\/em>.\u00a0

As Paul points out in our Ephesians text, God is \u201crich in mercy, because of his great love for us.\u201d\u00a0Good health, good friends, and the fact that we are entering one of the most beautiful times of the year are reminders that \u201chis compassions never fail\u201d (Lamentations 3:23).\u00a0

Grace<\/strong> is getting what we don\u2019t<\/u> deserve<\/em>.\u00a0

There\u2019s a reason we sing \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d Grace means that God\u2019s presence, God\u2019s love, and God\u2019s forgiveness cannot be earned. They cannot be deserved.\u00a0They can only be received.\u00a0No wonder Paul begins and ends all 13 of his New Testament letters with a reference to grace.\u00a0

Wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful to live in a world in which grace and mercy are the only considerations?\u00a0

At first blush, that sounds great.\u00a0But as anyone who has ever tried to advocate for the poor, referee a kids soccer game, or resolve heated personal conflicts has discovered, we cannot live without justice. Accountability matters.

Perhaps we should rephrase our question: Wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful to live in a world in which all three of these realities are perfectly expressed in the actions of a gracious, just, and merciful God?\u00a0

Jesus says, “That’s exactly the kind of world we live in.\u00a0And that\u2019s who my Father really is.\u201d

In the public imagination, heaven sounds like a great place to be \u2013 something on the order of Club Med, only with eternally better perks and no expiration date.

But the most important aspect of the next world is often overlooked: Heaven is not about us<\/em>. It\u2019s all about God. All the attention, all the focus, all the joy is focused on heaven\u2019s Primary Resident. The only people who will ever be in heaven \u2013 who would ever feel happy<\/em> to be in heaven \u2013 are those who, above everything else, are so deeply glad that God is God.

Those who think differently need not worry about \u201cgetting into heaven.\u201d They would be utterly miserable there.

In the end, life with God in the new creation is a gift, not an entitlement.

None of us can ever earn what God gives for free.

But we definitely have to be humble enough to receive it with empty hands and grateful hearts.\u00a0<\/em>
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here As a general rule, I hesitate to make comments about the President of the United States. Over the past 10 years, I believe I\u2019ve mentioned Donald Trump just five times. That\u2019s a shame, because he is not only the most powerful human being on the planet, but unquestionably the most quotable…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[997,36,345],"class_list":["post-4869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-good-works","tag-heaven","tag-salvation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4871,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4869\/revisions\/4871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}