How Much Does It Cost?

How Much Does It Cost To Go To Heaven?

I am nearing the end of the first week in a 30-Day Challenge to “Bullet-Point” the commands of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

The plan was to share after the 30-Days, but I had this little pearl I wanted to share now. Actually it is not a little pearl, it is a big pearl, it is a massive pearl.

As I began  Matthew 5, the beginning of what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, I considered the fact that Jesus starts out the teaching saying eight times, “Blessed are the”. As I considered this, it seemed logical to conclude that these are commands; after all, everyone’s hope is that God would bless them, that God would show them favor. Therefore, if you want to be “blessed”, if you want God’s favor, “be or do this_______”.

The first “Blessed are the” is found in verse 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. Based on teachings I have read and heard, “poor in spirit” essentially means to be “spiritually bankrupt”. That makes sense, so, let’s dig in to that a little bit. 

What does it mean to be “spiritually bankrupt”?

To be “spiritually bankrupt” is to have NOTHING to offer God that would gain you access to spiritual life, to eternal life. Nothing you have to offer that God should forgive you, or show you any favor at all.

The reality is, everyone is spiritually bankrupt; however, most do not know it. Most believe they have something to offer God that He should and would take as “currency” to gain eternal life; such as, good works, financial contributions, church attendance, rituals, and they are “good people” by comparison.

Therefore, we might say, “blessed are the ones that KNOW they are poor in spirit”. The “poor in spirit” KNOW they have NOTHING, they know they are NOTHING. 

The reality is, until a man is born again, all ANYONE has to offer God is their wickedness, their sin – and the wages of sin is death.

Everything a person believes he or she has done that would merit them God’s favor is the equivalent of a filthy menstrual rag. Imagine trying to gain access to an earthly king’s palace and offering a filthy menstrual rag as your ticket in, let alone offering it to gain access to the Kingdom of the King of kings!

It is logical that Jesus would begin with this since everything else is hinged on you humbling yourself to God. It is pride that has a man thinking he deserves Heaven. It is only in the humility of knowing your true condition that a man can fully understand that the only thing he deserves is God’s Wrath.

Once we know this, we are blessed, because that drives us to our knees, that makes our prideful heart contrite, that leaves us crying out, “what must I do?”

Verses to Support This Post:

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Isaiah 66:2 All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word.

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

1Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.