I certainly hope so! If not, all of us are in BIG trouble!
The real question is: do unrepentant sinners go to heaven? I think I can safely say the answer to that question is: NO! Not a chance. Not happening. Close the door on your way out.
Sin is part of our nature, it is the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination, we are all born with. Call it Original Sin, call it whatever you want to, but, as the Bard of Avon said, “What’s in a name?” Any way you look at it, we are, all of us, sinful in nature, sinful in actions and thoughts, and the only difference between me being a sinner before I was saved and me being a sinner now that I am saved is that now I am saved, AND (that’s a big “a-n-d”) I am repentant. I sin, but I don’t want to sin. My actions do not match my attitude.
Shaul said it in Romans 7:15 when he confessed, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
For those who have Yeshua Ha Maschiach at their side, as their Intercessor and Arbiter with the Lord when we come before Him at Judgment Day, we are saved from our sins when we repent of them and call upon His blood to cleanse us from them.
It is not the sin as much as it is the willful act of sinning which separates us from God.
God tells us through the Prophets, over and over, that He is more concerned with the desire of our hearts than He is for sacrifices.
Check out these few examples:
Isiah 1:11- 1:20, ” The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. ‘Come now, let us settle the matter’, says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
1 Samuel 15:22, “But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
Proverbs 21:3, “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
Hosea 6:6, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Get it? It’s all about obedience- not from fear of death or destruction, but from fear of the Lord, as in respect, honor, faithful trusting, and love. That is what God wants of us, that is what He desires, and that is the only thing that we can give Him. God owns everything there is in the Universe, and what isn’t here now He can create. What He can’t have without us giving it to Him is our love, our obedience and our trust. These are the really important things to God.
Accepting Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah, as your Savior, confessing Him to be the Son of God, all that is good so long as you mean it. And the only way to show you mean it is to change your behavior by changing your attitude. Only good trees provide good fruit, and your fruit better be good if you intend to present it to the Lord.
There is an old Jewish proverb: You can’t stop a bird from landing in a tree, but you can keep it from building a nest there. In other words, we will not be able to stop that initial reaction, that first thought, what we think at the first glance, but we can control what happens after that.
Yes, sinners go to heaven. And sinners that are really saved are changing their attitude. They are overcoming, slowly but surely, their Yetzer Hara and maturing and strengthening their Yetzer Tov (Good Inclination) so that their obedience to God’s Torah is from their heart.
God wants us to want to obey Him from desire to please Him. Yes, obedience brings blessings, and there ain’t nothing wrong with receiving blessings! But that’s not what it is really about.
God can have anything and everything He wants without anything from us, except our obedience and love. Tithe, do Tzedakah, give of your time to those in need and you are doing to God that which pleases Him.
