HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 28, 2025 – The lies of the devil are embedded in Christianity and have been since just after the beginning (Jesus warned us about that), but no lie is more perfidious than the one that states that Jesus did everything for us and all we have to do at the Judgement is claim we’re with Jesus and we’ll gain entrance to Heaven.

If we live the life of the world, slacking and going easy on ourselves, Heaven is not where we’ll end up. I know this because Jesus states it plainly in the Gospels. He said the Way is narrow and few find it. He said we need to pick up our cross daily and carry it. He said that our every word, deed, and thought will be thoroughly examined at the Judgement, and that we’ll be held accountable for them all. He said that those closest to us will be our worst enemies and, knowing that, we should proceed accordingly. He said we should live as if we were actual eunuchs. He said that the sheep go to Heaven, but the goats don’t, and what separates the sheep from the goats is their response to people in need. In other words, did they help the people God put in their path to help, or did they refuse to help them? The sheep actively helped the people God directed them to help, and this was counted towards them as righteousness.

If all we have to do is claim we’re with Jesus but otherwise live however we want while using as an excuse “we’re all sinners!”, then what about the five virgins who didn’t have enough oil in their lamps? Why couldn’t they just borrow some oil from the five virgins who did? Or why couldn’t they just have said to the bridegroom when he arrived: “It’s OK that I don’t have enough oil because I’m with you”? Or what about the guy who was kicked out of the wedding feast because he didn’t have a wedding robe on? Why couldn’t he have just claimed to be with Jesus?

In his teachings, Jesus insists that we must keep the Commandments, all ten of them. Being his follower doesn’t exempt us from that. Yes, Jesus permitted himself to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins up to the point when we say “Yes!” to God and are converted and become like little children for humility and obedience to God, but after our pivotal “Yes!”, after we’ve been purged of the  world’s spirits and filled with God’s Spirit and have entered into God’s Kingdom on Earth and reestablished (thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice) the relationship with God that we’d lost through Adam’s sin – from that point onward, everything we do and everything we say (and yes even everything we think) is on us. We’re responsible for choosing what is right in God’s eyes, and the best way to do so is following Jesus’ example.

It’s a lie to claim that because “we’re all sinners”, we can do nothing worthy and that Jesus did it all for us. Jesus sacrificed himself for us, yes, but first he taught us how to get home. We need to live as Jesus taught us, not as the devil says we can.