Restricted Access

As of this week, the parking lot reconstruction/resurfacing project behind our building is finally complete. Since May, the entrance and exit gates and card reader have been in storage, allowing free access to the lot for all and sundry (assuming you could find a parking spot in the small section of the lot that was not torn up, or were brave enough to park somewhere that carried the distinct possibility of your car being run over by a backhoe).

The card reader is simple; pull up to the box, run your card through the reader slot (with the magnetic strip facing the right way - a challenge to remember some mornings) and watch the gate magically rise. The key here is that you must have the right card. The card is issued by Parking Services only after they have verified with Human Resources your employment at the university. The cards are issued for one particular lot, granting you immediate access. If you don't have a valid card, you will not get in.

For all that most people would have it not so, entrance to heaven is much the same. The access criteria, similar to that established by the university, is based on proof of belonging. Someone must vouch for you, to aver that you do indeed belong in this place. Scripture is very clear on who that Someone is:

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:10-13 (ESV)

The entrance criteria are narrow and strict: if you do not believe, you will not get in. The good news is that while the criteria are strict, it is astonishingly easy for anyone to fulfill them. You needn't spruce yourself up, work on becoming a better person before you apply; the criteria, in fact, are based on the belief that we are incapable of fixing ourselves up enough to make the grade.

Admit that you are a sinner, incapable of being pleasing to God on your own. Believe that Jesus died for your sins, paying the penalty for them, to restore you to a relationship with God. Commit your life to following Him.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
John 1:12 (NIV)

Do you have Someone to vouch for you?