lying_1 I don’t know if I’ve ever been asked that question, but many times people have told me they believe they will go to heaven because they keep the Ten Commandments. Is that true? Will keeping them get you to heaven?

This may shock my regular readers, but it is true. If you obey all of the Ten Commandments, if you never disobey one of them, even one time, you will go to heaven. (Did you know the Bible says in James 2:10 that, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” ?)

There are a couple of problems with keeping those Ten Commandments. For example, if keeping them is the way you will get into heaven, wouldn’t it be important for you to know what they are? It’s rare to find anyone who can even name all ten of them, let alone keep them. Can you?

There is another problem with getting to heaven by obeying the Ten Commandments. None of us keep them, and that includes you and me. Let me use just one command, the ninth, to prove my point. “You shall not bear false witness

[or lie] against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).

Pamela Meyer, author of “Lie-spotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception” gives us some examples of lies that many of us may have told. Some of them we call “white lies,” like: “No, that dress doesn’t make you look fat,” or “I never got your letter (or email).” Have you ever told your mother that her lasagna was delicious when you really didn’t like it? Or has there ever been a time you told your boss you would be glad to work overtime just because you didn’t want to upset him?

Other lies are more serious, like telling your spouse you are being faithful, when the truth is you are emotionally or physically involved with someone else. We have all watched politicians tell us what they think we want to hear in order to get our votes, and then do the opposite when they get into office.

Ready for a shock? Researchers claim that the average person is told 10 to 200 lies a day, and that strangers lie to each other three times during the ten minutes when they meet for the first time.

Lying is not only common, but it also starts early. There are times that babies will cry like they are hungry or in pain, but as soon as someone pays attention to them, the faucet of tears is instantly turned off.

The point is this. Because we have all disobeyed the 9th Commandment, we are all disqualified from living eternally in the presence of a holy God. Because God is the “…God of truth” (Psalm 31:5), “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord….” (Proverbs 12:22). God hates lying.

What are we to do since we can’t keep the 9th Commandment, let alone the other nine, and God can’t change His standard of holiness? There is good news. Jesus has blazed a trail for us.

The God of truth was willing to invade this world filled with lies. We know this is true because when Jesus came to this earth, He made this amazing claim: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

If you have placed your complete trust in Christ, then you can, “know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). When we trust Jesus, God forgives our lies and our other sins and replaces it with the holiness of Christ. That forgiveness is what gets us into heaven, because no one, except Jesus, has ever kept the Ten Commandments.