Daily Devotional #1913

There is an old question that came out of a college campus ministry years ago that said "If you died tonight and faced God and he asked "Why should I let you in to my heaven?", what would you say? I heard a pastor named Alistair Begg talking about that one time and he said "If your answer starts with 'Because I...' you got it wrong." The greatest misunderstanding about the God of the Bible is that we think God is asking us to contribute to our salvation. When we tell God "Well I..." then the best we can offer is that we are saying that we are saved by faith and the works that we do. One of the things I need to do and you also is to "preach" the cross to ourselves. It is all about him, not about us. In the book of Ephesians in the Bible we are told that God saves us by his grace when you choose to believe what he says. We can't take credit for anything because this is a gift that comes from God to us. Salvation, getting into heave, is not a reward for good things you do or have done. It is the work of Christ on our behalf on the cross. So to answer that question... Why should I let you into my heaven?, might best simply be because the man on that middle cross said I could come. He has done it all, just say "yes" to him because it is all about Jesus and what he has done. It is a gift that is waiting for each one of us. Here's our Bible verse for today... 
Ephesians 2:8-10 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. (9) Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (10) For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. 
Remember I'm praying for you, 
PJ