Perfection

Every religion in the world is based on merit. About weight the good that you have done against the bad that you have done, and this is what will determine whether you are to reach heaven or not.

But Christianity demands perfection:

Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

And actually, so does Judaism which is the mother religion of Christianity -

Deut 18:13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

So How does a sinner get to heaven, and a apparently good person go to hell?

But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

It's easy to say that God is unfair because someone who is a good person, righteous in every seeming way, then suddenly decides to break one law becomes guilty of it all. It's easy to say God is not reasonable because a person who is a lawbreaker - if he will turn away from his sin and never sin again, then he can go to heaven. But this is what God has said. He takes no pleasure that anyone should die in their wickedness.

So what does a Christian believe? Is it possible that anyone can stop sinning and do all that God says he should?

Eze 36:25-27 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Without this new heart, without this new spirit, which is GOD's spirit, we cannot walk in His statutes, we cannot keep His judgments; we cannot do them. But with this heart and spirit, we can! These things were promised to Israel, but then God also promised to pour His spirit upon the Gentile nations, too.Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;

Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb, the one that all the sacrifices of the scriptures pointed to, the one necessary so that we might be reconciled to God and receive this new heart and new spirit - or else none would have received it.

This is what we believe. That without God's spirit within you, you do not have the ability to walk in God's statutes, and you cannot get there. It is only by accepting that Jesus was the sacrifice and the redeemer, and the giver of this spirit, that you can receive the spirit that will enable you to do God's will. Jesus was pointed to throughout your scriptures as the Messiah, the one who would bring all the nations under the rule of David.

If you are born a Jew, you are a Jew by birth. A person born to Christian parents is not a Christian - he is a heathen. Although he would like to claim a heritage, a heritage will not help give him heaven. He can say that he believes Jesus came to earth and died on a cross, he can even believe that he was resurrected - but these are only historical facts and they cannot save him. And they do not make him a true Christian.

James 2:19 - You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

Salvation can only be found by the realization that you are not perfect - that you cannot make it to heaven on your own merit. That you can never follow God's law, and that you can never please God. Then you can fall upon God's mercy; fall upon the gracious sacrifice that God made for you by killing Jesus instead of you. He did this by sending Jesus to Hell instead of you. By claiming the blood of Jesus and asking Jesus to make all of your decisions for you, to lead you on the right path, and make it possible for you to follow God. Then you will find the chains of humanity and the mistakes fall away, and you can fly to heaven.

Eze 18:21-32 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?