DownshoreDrift

Warren Buffett is giving around $37 billion to the Gates Foundation and his own foundations to fight disease and poverty. It's interesting to read some of his motivation: 

“There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way,” said Buffett. He presented the biggest gift to Gates, and $1 billion donations to his own foundation and the foundations run by each of his three children.

While I totally agree that the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett, is doing a great thing, this just speaks to the opinion of most in our culture. Plain and simple, in one way or another, you work your way to heaven through good deeds, adherence to religion, or a good life. At the end of your life, you stand before God, and if the good outweighs the bad, you get into heaven. But what does the Bible say?

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

²¹But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,^[a] through faith in his blood. - Romans 3:21-25

The Bible clearly says that salvation, and thus entrance into heaven, comes only through placing your faith in Jesus Christ, who takes away our sins, and receiving the free gift of the grace of God.  Good people like Warren Buffett will not find salvation through their wonderful works because they are trusting in their own works and righteousness instead of trusting in the way that God provides, which is faith in Jesus Christ.   One last passage of so many that speak to this:

⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. - Philippians 3:7-11

The only way that we can find salvation is to put our full faith and confidence in Jesus and receive His gift of righteousness and forgiveness. If we put or faith in anything else, even our philanthropy, I am afraid that we will be very disappointed. Not because we were not good people, but because on our own, we can never be good enough to be accepted by God. We have to place our faith in the Perfect One, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose from the dead so that we would be made right with God. What about you? What do you put your trust in? Just wondering.  If you'd like more information about how to actually become a Christian, you can start HERE and work your way through the links.