"How can a loving God allow someone into heaven?"
For the sake of illustration, think about the person on this earth you love most. Have that person in mind? It may take a few seconds, so don't rush ahead in reading until this person is in mind. Now, consider a perfect stranger who has wronged you somehow. Do you have this stranger pictured yet? Now (especially if you are a Christian), the Bible commands us to love one another (John 15:12), and even to love people as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39, Leviticus 19:18)!
This perfect stranger who has wronged you is now sentenced to death because they wronged you, and now you actually consider this option the judge gives you: "If you give me the life of this person you love the most, I will not punish this perfect stranger who was actually the one who wronged you. The stranger will go free, but you loved one must die."
Absurd, right?
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NIV)
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Romans 5:6-11, NIV)If you allowed your loved one to die for this stranger, the news and media would tear you apart and your family may very well disown you. Can't you see how unfair it would have seemed to you loved one? Gos was likewise unfair to Himself when He decided to become a human and die a painful death so that we can live.
Somehow we get confused about how God would send anyone to hell, but don't you see how confusing it is that He would allow someone to come to heaven and live forever? We have wronged Him a million times, and since Adam and Eve wronged Him, the entire human race has been in rebellion against its Creator, who still loves us so much, He allowed His Loved One to die in place for us, so we do not have to die and spend eternity in unspeakable torment. Instead, we can spend forever in happiness and love and unspeakable majesty.
This amazing love is offered to you, too, my reader.
"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne."
-Jesus (Revelation 3:19-21, NIV)
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