I was recently in a conversation where someone asked, “what’s the worst thing I can do and still go to heaven?” Although asked innocently and genuinely, the rest of us laughed at the basic concept of the question, “what can I get away with?” As I reflected on the question I realized that this is how everyone thinks when we stray from the holiness and grace of God. We battle this question, or its corollary, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18).
In what’s known as the sermon on the mount Jesus addresses the question of what we can get away with. His response is to double down on the law and the prophets, to say that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, and then he seemingly goes on to make the law even more difficult to follow (murder = looking at someone angrily, adultery = looking at someone lustfully, so gouge out your eye and cut off your hand!). So if we can’t get away with anything, how do we inherit eternal life?
