As my wife and I were entering a restaurant, I held the door open for a customer as she was exiting. I quickly handed her a gospel tract about pets and she gladly received it and began to immediately talk about how she loved cats. To be honest, I was going to walk on in but since she indicated she wanted to share her story about her furry friends, I gladly listened. After she finished, it allowed me to inquire about where she thought pets would go when they passed from this earth. After hearing her comments, I then asked if she knew if she would go to heaven when she died. She immediately said she would because she was a good person. It is interesting, that the response of being a good person is one of the most common reasons people believe they should go to heaven. I asked her how good she needed to be. That is difficult to answer because Jesus never tells us how good we need to be because no one is good. One of the definitions of good is moral perfection, and I am certainly miles away from being qualified. I was able to explain that none of us can be good enough to be in sinless heaven in the presence of a pure and holy God. Thankfully, Jesus was the only one who could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins and to qualify us due to His sinless life to provide a way to be with God forever. On the cross, Jesus died to give us his perfect life in exchange for our sinful life. Wow, what a gift. She agreed to think about our conversation. This encounter reminded me that when people want to talk, let them talk and listen well because they will usually provide an open door to share the gospel, even if it involves cats!
Paul says in II Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”