As a teacher, my sympathies lie with my pupils.

Pupils who have worked so hard all year, anticipating a place at their chosen university upon securing the necessary grades, abandoned as they reach the ‘home straight’ with no opportunity of proving their abilities in their final exams.

For the first time ever, teachers are being asked to both grade and rank pupils based on merit.

To an extent, their final grades lie in our hands. That’s a scary thought for us - more so for them, perhaps!

Everyone wants a good grade

Undoubtedly, there are those pupils who have worked hard throughout their school career, consistently aiming to be top of the class.

Then there are those who would have scrambled at the last minute for their desired grades, realising the importance they would have on their future, but now face the possibility that it might just be too late.

As my pupils stress and worry over their futures, this makes me wonder if you do too?

You see, the Bible makes clear that when your life on this earth is over you will enter eternity and you will spend it in one of two places, heaven or hell.

All Miss The Mark

The problem is that we are all missing the mark to enter heaven. God requires 100% perfection.

The Bible says that because we were born with the problem of sin, we have fallen short of God’s standard of perfection. God is holy and cannot have sin in heaven with Him.

God is a fair judge so He must deal justly with sin, but the Bible also tells us that God is love.

That is why He sent His perfect, sinless Son, Jesus Christ, from heaven to die on the cross, bearing the punishment that we all deserved.

You can have a place in heaven if you will only turn to Him in faith, recognising your sin and being sorry for it, and trust that He alone has done enough to save you.

When God looks on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on your behalf, He can righteously see you as being perfect through His Son.

Don’t be like those who have left it too late, those pupils who flunked the prelims believing that they could always “pull it out of the bag” in their final exams. For them, the opportunity has been missed.

Salvation is an urgent matter. We don’t know when the closing date for “entry” will be, but the Lord Jesus is coming back soon. We don’t know when, but at that moment it will forever be too late. The Bible says,