​WHO SETS IMMIGRATION POLICY?

A caravan of people reaches the border, claims asylum, and expects to be allowed entry.  No doubt you’ve seen the images and heard the reports.  It’s pretty dramatic stuff.  And no matter your political stripe, it does raise some important questions – about what borders mean, who has right of entry, and under what circumstances should people be allowed entry.  Among the answers offered are, on the one hand, anyone should be allowed entry into the country with no conditions at all.  On the other hand, there are those who argue for entry based on merit.  Ask ten people, you’re likely to get ten different opinions.  It’s all part of our political discourse these days.
 
I wonder if people think those same ideas apply to heaven. 
 
It’s a very popular belief that anyone and everyone who dies finds the “pearly gates” wide open. Everybody goes to heaven.  Creeds don’t count because, in this theory, no matter whom you worship it’s all the same God anyway.  Oh, there may be some folks who won’t be allowed in, but being barred from heaven is only for particularly bad people…people certainly worse than me, anyway.  That’s a popular idea, but is it so?
 
Another idea is that entrance into heaven is merit-based.   If you are a good person or try hard to be a good person, God will let you in.  Nobody’s perfect, of course, so as long as you’re as good as most and better than the worst, you have a reasonably good chance of getting in.  In this idea, too, creeds don’t mean much.  It’s all about deeds.  There’s something about this that appeals to us.  Everyone admires the self-made person who, through effort and grit and determination, carves out a place in world for herself or himself.  That, too, is a popular idea, but is it so?
 
There’s a little verse in Proverbs in the Bible (14:12) that says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  Not all ideas that people have – especially religious and spiritual ones – have validity.  Some can be downright deadly.  We’d be wise to not be too quick to make assumptions until we check with the person who actually sets the policy.
 
Of course, the kinds of ideas about heaven mentioned above are based on the assumption that those who want to immigrate have something to say about the admittance policy.  And that is where those ideas all fall apart.  Heaven is God’s creation.  He and he alone has the prerogative to set policy about who may enter and on what basis he or she may enter.  And the truth of it is that he has said very explicit things about those two ideas mentioned above, clearly rejecting both of them.
 
That merit-based thing falls apart when we look at what God says about the merit standard he has set:  “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  That doesn’t say “try hard.”  It doesn’t say, “Be good” or even “be better than most.”  It says “be perfect.”  The apostle Paul realized this merit-based thing cannot work for that very reason.  Here’s how he put it, “no one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”  (Romans 3:20).  So much for merit-based admittance.
 
And what about the “all roads lead to heaven” theory?  Give some thought to God’s statement through the prophet Isaiah (45:21-22):  “…there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.  Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”  The corollary to that verse is in Acts 4: 12 in the New Testament – “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men which we must be saved.”  That’s quite specific, isn’t it?  The God who reveals himself in the Bible says that he is the only one to whom people can turn for admittance.  Jesus said it as clearly as it can be said, “I am the way and the truth and life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Apparently and obviously, creeds do matter – not the creeds you hold in your hand, but rather the one you hold in your heart.
 
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”  To some ears that might sound really exclusive.  If it does, then we really don’t understand the heart of the one who said that.  Jesus atoned for the sins of the whole world.  That’s not my opinion; that’s what the Word of God says:  “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the world.”  (1 John 2:2) The atoning death of Jesus was inclusive of the entire human race.  His plan to tell people about this?  That was totally inclusive, too: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”  (Mark 16:15). Nobody is to be excluded – all are to be told the good news!  And God’s invitation to have heaven through Jesus is inclusive, too.  How else do we understand this arms-thrown-wide-open statement? – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Entrance is by Jesus’ finished work.  Entrance is available and open to all who enter by him who is The Way.   
 
Get it?  Those who “show up at the border” and insist on being let in on their own terms are in for a monumental and eternal disappointment.  “Show up at the border” seeking admittance on the basis for Jesus’ merit and on the basis of the price of admission that he paid at the cross, and the gates are wide open.  Jesus put it this way (Mark 16:16):  “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  I like that policy both because it gives sure hope for heaven, and because I know it is not just wishful thinking on my part.  It’s God’s own promise!