I checked my boarding pass one more time as I surveyed the extremely crowded airport check-in counters. The words were comforting to me: “TSA Pre” with a little checkmark (√). We had arrived at the airport almost two and a half hours before our departure time. Two of us had the TSA pre-approved status; one did not. The security line wound around stanchions and extended back into the check-in area. You would think you were in line for a Disney attraction, but there was no “magic moment” going through security that morning.

Our traveling companion made it to the gate a mere 10 minutes before boarding began. If you are a frequent flyer, it is always a good move to get TSA pre-approved.

As a Christian, I am also “pre-approved” for my ultimate destination: heaven. If you think going through airport security is “hell,” you are in for one heck of a surprise come judgment day. My friend doesn’t fly often enough to warrant the time and expense of getting TSA pre-approved, but the cost of my pre-approved status to heaven has been paid in full by Jesus my Savior.

There was a day many, many years ago when I realized that I was not pre-approved for heaven. Oh, I had thought about it and had convinced myself that the security screening wasn’t going to be that difficult — I could simply talk my way in by bragging about the good life I had lived. Yet I knew there were dark deeds that would not pass muster.

There was something about Romans 3:23 that haunted me as I contemplated eternal security: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But then I found that the cost of my pre-approval had already been paid. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, ESV)

Did you catch that part about “free gift”? All of my pre-approval fees were paid for at the Cross of Calvary.

I’ve also received an assurance that I’ll pass through security without any delay because Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37) So, my ticket has been bought and paid for, and my path through security is pre-approved.

But what about you, my friend? Unlike my airline flights (which are never on time these days), this journey can happen at any time. “For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:12)

There will be no boarding calls. Jesus told His disciples, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:26)

One of the last passages in the Bible is the invitation to come: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” (Revelation 22:17) King Jesus has purchased the ticket, and we merely have to ask for that free gift that ensures our booking on the last flight.

If you haven’t been “pre-approved,” there is no better time to, in the words of that 21st-century philosophical figure Larry the Cable Guy, “git'er done!”

What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!