Dear Mr. President, about going to heaven…

I saw your remarks about heaven on Fox & Friends from Tuesday morning, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have heard them. It is a rare thing for a world leader to reflect so openly about his own mortality and about what waits on the other side. Even in polite conversation, most people don’t want to “go there,” much less in front of millions of viewers. But you did go there, and there are millions of us who are grateful that you did.

Sadly, the human condition is such that people are often reluctant to think about what you brought up on Tuesday morning. Aren’t there happier things to contemplate than our own demise and the yawning chasm of eternity that lies on the other side of it? And yet, the psalmist says, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away. … So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:10-12).

The older we get, the more we come to terms with the fact that our lives are very short in the big scheme of things and that the time we have left is momentary and fleeting. It is the “heart of wisdom” to let that reality impress itself fully on our consciences and to let it drive us to consider, “What is going to happen to me after I die?” The answer to that question matters more than anything—more than any riches we may amass for ourselves, more than any bucket-list experiences we may have, and even more than any peace deals that may be brokered among nations (and I am praying for the success of your important effort to find a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine).

There is one part of your remarks that arrested my attention. You said,

I just want to end [the war between Russian and Ukraine]. If I can save seven thousand people a week from getting killed, that’s pretty good. I want to get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I hear I’m at the bottom of the totem pole. If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.

Some commentators have detected an impish tone in your voice and suggest that you weren’t being serious. But I think they are reading your tone incorrectly. I have heard you broach this subject too many times in the past to think that there was nothing to this. For example, I think that you were in earnest last year when you said that there was a divine purpose in your life being spared after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. How could anyone not be thinking about life and death and judgment and eternity after multiple assassination attempts?

It’s what you say at the end of your remarks above that is the reason for my writing. You say that you have heard that you are “not doing well” and are at “the bottom of the totem pole” when it comes to your prospects for heaven. You also say that perhaps getting this peace deal done and saving lives might be enough to tip the divine scales in your favor as far as heaven is concerned.

The truth is that apart from grace, none of us are doing well. The Bible says that we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And it’s not just a matter of the bad stuff that we do. Our rebellion against our Maker grows out of a corruption of our very nature (Jeremiah 17:9). The human condition is so dire that even our best attempts to do good are tainted by the sin that has taken up residence in our hearts (Isaiah 64:6). We can never tip the scales of justice in our favor with good works. God is too holy, and we are too sinful to measure up to what is required.

But the good news is this. What we could never do for ourselves, God did for us. God became a man and lived the life we should have lived and died the death that we deserved to die. In dying on a Roman cross, Jesus Christ took the punishment that we deserved because of our sin. He was raised to life three days later to give us eternal life. Through Jesus, God offers us full forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus has done for us. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

You can’t earn the salvation that Jesus provides. You can’t earn heaven. So you can rest from any such effort. All you need to do is turn away from your sin and trust in Christ. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). He’s done all the work, you just need to trust in the One who did all the work for you.

Thank you for your remarks on Tuesday, Mr. President. And thank you for your efforts for peace. I am praying for you.

Sincerely,

Denny Burk