We all have heard the classic concept that almost every religion teaches, i.e., at the end of time God will judge everyone and will send them to heaven and hell based on some criteria, which are different according to different religions.
Let’s discuss what some major religions have to say about heaven and hell:
Hinduism – In Hinduism, there are 2 ways you can go to heaven: either through works/deeds or through devotion or complete dedication of life to the ultimate reality, considered as god.
Islam – In Islam, there is a similar view that people go to heaven based on their works/deeds, in addition to the condition that they believe in the one true god and follow the rules mentioned in their book.
Judaism – In Judaism, the belief is that there will come a messiah who will uplift the world from its fallen state back to the glory of the Garden of Eden. Therefore no particular opinion on who goes to hell and heaven.
Buddhism – There is no concept of heaven and hell in Buddhism. According to them, we need to give up our worldly needs to discover reality.
Christianity – According to Christianity, there is a special condition provided with respect to the New Testament where the path to reach Heaven is not through works/deeds but through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now understand this, out of all the religions mentioned above, Christianity is the only religion that talks about going to heaven without works, or in other words, salvation through faith and not works. In fact, in the book of John, it is clearly written that salvation is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by works, lest any man boast of it, which is a very common sinful nature of man.
Now, many people have objections to the above criteria, as the works/deeds criteria seem more practical to many people. But there is a problem with this: how do we define the reference for these works/deeds so as to qualify whether we can go to heaven or not?
Now this has been resolved by the Lord Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law and lived a perfect human life, which no one has ever lived. Therefore, when The Bible says that salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ it means that Christ has set the criteria/conditions for qualifying to be worthy of heaven by fulfilling the law and living a sinless life, i.e. to be eligible to go heaven a person has to live a life more perfect than Lord Jesus Christ, which according to history no one has ever been able to do.
Hence, salvation through works/deeds could have been a way, but through Lord Jesus Christ, the Father has not only shown us how far we are from it but also provided an alternative to it.
One point to note here is that even though I have mentioned going to heaven or qualifying for heaven, the bible doesn’t say we are going to live in heaven for our whole life, but instead for a brief time. Qualifying for heaven here means being a part of God’s family.
In the next post, I will discuss the sinless life of Jesus Christ. I Would be happy to hear your thoughts on the above!