During a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday morning’s “Fox & Friends,” President Donald Trump offered a uniquely personal insight into his motivation for trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war. “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s a pretty [big deal],” Trump reasoned. “I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

These remarks met with mockery and profanity from the impenetrably Trump-skeptical media. But they do reveal deeper, spiritual reflection from someone who has long behaved as a worldly businessman. After Trump narrowly escaped a would-be assassin’s bullet, and with his 80th birthday approaching, such reflection on what comes after this life is not surprising.

One important takeaway from his remarks is that Trump wants to get to heaven. Such a desire evidences a belief in an afterlife, which some modern materialists have discounted entirely. Scoffers may scoff, but they cannot change the fact that this is a good desire that all people should have. Let me stipulate at the outset that I share President Trump’s desire that he should get into heaven. In one sense, even God himself wants Trump to get into heaven, for he “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

This raises an all-important question: how can a person get to heaven?

Based on this comment, President Trump seems to believe that people get into heaven by doing enough good works. He shows some awareness that the licentious, self-centered life he lived as a young man does not qualify him for heaven. He hopes to make up for this by negotiating international peace deals that save thousands, perhaps even millions of lives. Wouldn’t such magnificent good works outweigh his sins?

This perspective is half-correct. The Bible is clear that, on Judgment Day, God “will render to each one according to his works” (Romans 2:6). Or, as John vividly describes, “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. … And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:12).

The problem is that no human being can measure up to God’s standard of righteousness, which is absolute perfection (Romans 3:10, 23). In God’s sight, even actions that our culture considers acceptable — such coveting another person’s possessions (Romans 7:7-8) or treating people differently based on what they wear (James 2:1-4) — are sins. In God’s sight, our good deeds cannot erase or outweigh our sins, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10).

This leaves mankind in a nasty predicament, but God has provided a solution: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:22). In other words, the only way for anyone to be declared righteous in God’s sight — and thereby get into heaven — is for the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to take the place of his or her own spotted record.

The marvelous reality of the Christian gospel is that this righteousness is on offer only to those who accept it through faith. This makes it an utterly free gift which we can do nothing to earn.

Naturally, our instincts flinch from this notion. Surely there is something we must do to earn God’s favor! The only thing we can do is become like little children, for “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Matthew 19:15). The little child does not work to earn the gifts of his loving father. He simply receives them as a gift because he knows and loves his father. For grownups, we must approach the heavenly Father in the same posture.

This is a difficult reality for anyone to swallow, but especially people with wealth, fame, and talent, who have grown accustomed to trusting in those worldly possessions. In their gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record Jesus’s encounter with a man who was both rich and a ruler, much like President Trump. Like Trump, this man wanted to get to heaven. Like Trump, he sought to work his way there through his own effort. He asked Jesus, “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:17).

In response, Jesus steered the conversation to expose the man’s disproportionate trust in his worldly possessions (Matthew 19:21-22). His heart loved his things, which meant that his heart could not love God. “No one can serve two masters. … You cannot serve God and money,” Jesus taught elsewhere (Matthew 6:24). Jesus then turned to his disciples and declared, “Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23-24).

If that makes it seem impossible, that is the point. “With man this is impossible,” Jesus continued, “but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). The point is, there is no one so rich, so famous, so talented, so powerful, so full of good works as to work their way into heaven. Once again, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

How can a person get to heaven? Only by renouncing every scheme to reach heaven through human effort and by trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In Wednesday’s portion of the Stand on the Word Bible reading plan, Jesus declared the exclusivity of heaven. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There is only one gate into this gated community. There is only one elevator to this penthouse. There is only one way into heaven.

Earlier, I omitted part of John’s vision about the final judgment, in which John saw not only the set of books containing all the works of men, but also the “book of life” (Revelation 20:12). “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15), while “only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” are permitted to enter the heavenly city (Revelation 21:27).

Christians should pray that Donald Trump does get to heaven (1 Timothy 2:2-4). But Trump will never enter heaven until he realizes he cannot get in on his own. Trump can orchestrate all the earthly peace deals he wants, but that will not help him enter heaven unless he also makes peace with the heavenly king and puts his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If Trump makes it into heaven, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will be the only reason.