When hubby and I took our cruise this past summer from Athens to Rome, we were given a SeaPass card during the boarding process. This SeaPass card was linked to our account and verified that we were indeed passengers on this ship.
Throughout the duration of the cruise, whenever there was a port stop, we could disembark as we wished. However … we were not allowed to board the ship once again without our SeaPass card!
At every port stop it was reinforced over and over by the crew, and by posted signs as we disembarked, and by announcements over the intercom that we would not be allowed to board the ship without our SeaPass card!
Sure enough, security was super strict when it came to getting back on the ship! We had to show our SeaPass card! Our SeaPass card was linked to the photo which had been taken of each of us during our check-in process … so our identity was verified by the security personnel as we re-boarded each time.
I couldn’t help but think how similar this is to getting into Heaven. Everyone wants to go to a better place once their life on this earth comes to an end. It’s like boarding a fantastic ship to “sail across the sea” to a wonderful peaceful land which waits beyond!
When it comes to getting to heaven, our “SeaPass card” to “board the ship” is Jesus Christ.
We won’t live forever. Our time on this earth is going to end at some point.
The ship is going to sail. Will we be on board?? Or will we forever miss the ship?
Just like hubby and I had to “get on the list” for the cruise, so also each of us needs to “get on the list” to get to Heaven.
To get on the list for the cruise, hubby and I were required to pay a large sum of money. So also, in the same way, to “get on the list” for Heaven a high price must be paid! The payment is: absolute moral perfection!
Perfection?!? That price is way too high. Nobody is perfect.
Oh, but wait … Jesus is absolutely perfect!
Jesus loved us all so much he left Heaven and came to earth to live the perfect life that we each should have lived. He died the death that we each deserve (because of our sin and failures and all the wrong things we have done).
Jesus offers to trade us his perfection, and in turn to take on himself all of our sin and imperfection.
Hubby and I showed up at the big white tent to check-in for our cruise. We walked up to the check-in counter and the worker verified that yes, the price for us to board this ship had indeed been paid in full.
This is what it is like when it comes to “boarding the ship” to get to Heaven. Jesus had fully paid the price for us! He offers this gift to us freely … all we have to do is accept Jesus’s payment on our behalf.
Some people don’t believe Jesus is real or that what he says matters. Some people are too proud to accept Jesus’s payment. Some people would rather try to “get on the ship” their own way. Some people would like to “get on the ship” but they have no idea that Jesus is the only way.
Jesus is our “ticket” to “board the ship.” Jesus is our “SeaPass card!”
Without Jesus, we will not be allowed to “board the ship.”
This is what the Bible says about the end of all time:
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. … If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, they were thrown into the lake of fire.”
– Revelation 20:11-15
Is your name “on the list” to “board the ship”?
Do you have your “SeaPass card”?
