The mission of Issues in Perspective is to provide thoughtful, historical and biblically-centered perspectives on current ethical and cultural issues.

In August 2025, a reporter asked President Trump about ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. He responded: “I want to end it,” he said. “I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”  His campaign’s political action committee then followed up with an appeal to his supporters to help him get into heaven by giving money.

Russell Moore has published a clever, but meaningful essay reflecting on Trump’s comments: “Let me start by confessing that—as much as I warn Christians about the politicization of religion and the religionification of politics—I am tempted to turn this into a critique of your character and your policies (especially in regard to vulnerable people). But that would further your problem. The Bible has a lot to say about how ‘rulers’ govern, and you will indeed be judged, like everyone else, for how you used your power.”

1.   “You’re aware of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, of his teaching, his healing, his casting out of demons. You’re also aware that he claimed certain things about himself—that the story of Israel found in the Scriptures had found its ultimate goal in him and that he was one with the God revealed in those Scriptures. He is the eternal Word of God come among us in the flesh (John 1:1–14). He announced that, in him, the kingdom of God had arrived in person (Luke 17:20–21) and that those who follow him will be with him in the new creation to come, the home he is preparing for them (John 14:1–6).”
2. “You’re aware that he was crucified, and I know from your talk about Easter that you are aware that he was raised from the dead and went back to the mysterious spiritual places from which he came, and that one day he will return for those who are waiting for him. The Resurrection wasn’t just a happy ending to a sad story—and it certainly wasn’t a “comeback,” the way you might compare it to your own story.”
3. “In the resurrection of Jesus, God started the new creation he promised through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos. And he kept the promises he made to Abraham and Moses and David. Jesus voluntarily entered into all the judgment and curses the Bible warned about for the sake of the world, all the way to the cross itself, bearing the weight and curse of sin that was not his own (2 Cor. 5:21).”
4. “To actually enter heaven, you have to give up that mindset of earning your way there. You have to recognize your own need for something you can’t win or achieve or earn. You have to consider Donald Trump to be the wrong path for you. In fact, you have to consider Donald Trump to be dead. If you confess that brokenness and need, though, you will find forgiveness. If you believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead and that he is the Lord you wish to follow, you will find that you have a place in Christ, which means his life is your life. He is in heaven—and if you’re part of him, you will be there too (Col. 3:1–3).  Again, there’s a lot more to say. Repent of your sin. Believe in Jesus: crucified, bearing your sins, and resurrected for you. In your heart, believe in Jesus as Lord, and with your mouth, say it—not to win over any constituency or to gain approval but because, in your heart, you believe it (Rom. 10:9–10). Seek him—maybe even start by saying, “I want to look for you but I don’t know where to find you,” and you will find him (Isa. 52:6; Matt. 7:7–8).”
5. “To see the way to heaven, stop thinking of yourself as a president or a billionaire, if only for a moment. Think of yourself as a little child—weak and dependent—and in need of a Father who is not impressed with you but who loves you and who will receive you (Matt. 18:3).”

President Trump, permit me to add a few of my own thoughts that I believe you need to understand:  Because humanity is “dead in its sin,” and because God is perfect, righteous and holy, God must remake us; He must do something that will permanently deal with our sin, for He can have nothing to do with sin, evil or unrighteousness.  Someone had to pay the price, suffer the punishment, for humanity’s sin.  Since death is the judgment for sin, someone had to die!  Someone had to be the Savior of the human race.  But the worth of salvation depends on the worth of the Savior.  If He were sinful like every other human being, then His death could only pay for His own sin.  He had to be perfect and He had to be sinless.

The Bible’s teaching about Jesus Christ (Christology) and its teaching about salvation (Soteriology) here intersect.  For salvation to be complete, the Savior had to be both fully and completely human and fully and completely God; He had to be humanity’s perfect substitute.  This is the message of Isaiah 52:13—53:12, and this is what John the Baptist meant when he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Since Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection provided a permanent, substitutionary atonement for sin (a “once-for-all” atonement—see Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10), how does God apply this finished work to our lives?  What now makes us acceptable to Him?  Ephesians 2:8-9 declares, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast” (ESV).  If salvation is by grace through faith, what has God done with my sin and why am I now acceptable to Him?  The answer is found in the doctrine of justification by faith.

Justification is the event whereby, when we place our faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work, we are “born again” (regeneration) and declared righteous by God.  Justification is forensic and involves the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.

• Justification is forensic:  It is a legal declaration by God, a verdict of acquittal, excluding all possibility of condemnation.  This declaration is accomplished on a just basis, namely that the claims of God and His moral law against the sinner have been satisfied.  Christ perfectly fulfilled all of God’s demands through His perfect life of obedience and through His atoning death, burial and resurrection.  He paid the penalty so that we can be pronounced not guilty!
• Justification is the imputation of righteousness:  Because of the forensic nature of justification, God can also declare us righteous.  The righteousness of Jesus Christ is “added to our account” so that His righteousness becomes our righteousness.  Our sin was “added to Jesus” on the cross and His righteousness was “added to us” when we place on faith in Him.  Because we are sinners, the righteousness that God imputes to us is an “alien” righteous; it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

How then are we justified?  The ringing declaration of Scripture is that we are justified by faith.  We appropriate all that Jesus did for us by faith.   We do not earn it, merit it or deserve it, President Trump.  The wondrous result of this marvelous doctrine is assurance, confidence and certainty of our position in Christ.  As Paul triumphantly declares in Romans 8:39—nothing “can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

See Russell Moore, Moore to the Point (4 September 2025).