Who will go to heaven?

     From Brennan Manning in the Ragamuffin Gospel.

Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9). I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Hat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other employment to support her two year old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last "trick," whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school; the deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust, and raped the earth.

But how? We ask.

Then the voice says, "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb."

There they are. There we are--the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it all cling to the faith.

My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.


     Here's a guy who truly got God's heart for us. It wasn't because he had a revelation one day, although that may be true also, but because he lived it. He was a man who fought his entire life to be free from alcohol. Only the grave truly ended his fight. He would be sober for 6 months and then fall prey again, he just could never escape it's pull. So how did this man who continued to fall to his addiction have such a profound impact on thousands upon thousands of people?

     He gave everything to God. His failures and his successes. God took him as he was and used him. Manning's life goes against everything we preach. Even though we say come as you are I don't think we do a very good job of living that out. I think we are judgemental and harsh. I think we expect change. And we should. But we don't know what change God is doing in relation to what changes we see. God alone can look into their heart and really know.

     I read that paragraph from Brennan and cringe at some of it. Yeah, but him? Yeah, but her? I just don't think so. My wife and I often rest on this scripture. Matthew 25:31-46. This is the when did we see you hungry and feed you? A stranger and invite you in? If you don't know it look it up. What strikes us about this is that many who thought they were getting in did not, and many others who did not expect entrance were welcomed in. Imagine that; people going to heaven who don't even know they're going.  How could that even be? I'm not sure I really grasp that. It begs the question.

What is God truly after?

     Maybe obedience and evidence can be exclusive. Maybe I don't see what is really happening. Maybe the few scriptures I look to to decide if someone is a "Christian", or to decide if a believer is "growing," are not enough. Maybe it is necessary to understand the whole of God's story. Maybe God has much more going on.