Is anyone beyond redemption?

New Year’s is about transformation. Out from the dead winter gleams a glistening opportunity for improvement and hope. It’s symbolic to the world, but for the Christian, it echoes new life in Christ. Not unlike Hogmanay’s fireworks festivities, all heaven erupts in feverous jubilation over even one sinner’s repentance (Luke 15:7). A human soul – eternal, made in God’s image – passes from death to life, simply by faith. God’s free gift of transformative grace is the intangibly lit spark every person needs for entrance to heaven. Yet so many live by the mistaken impression our good performance earns us eternal life. 

Celebrities who claim transformation

The sexually promiscuous, accused sex offenders, those who gave no credence to God’s ordained concept of biological sex whatsoever, and a whole host of other unlikely inhabitants of heaven, have appeared in my Instagram feed lately, transformed by grace and wanting everyone to know about it. Russell Brand publicly declared his salvation and commitment to Christ through baptism in the river Thames two years ago. Mostly famous for his substance and sexual addictions, he faces serious charges for crimes against women during his checkered past. But a repentant version of Brand, adamantly denying all criminal charges against him, consistently claims the need of Christ for salvation, like a changed man, across billboards and social media reels these days. 

Even if you’ve never been privy to adult films, you might still recognise the name Jenna Jameson. Achieving the rare position of fame beyond porn, way before social media, Jameson became an infamous household name in the States. Now, decades after leaving the industry, the 51-year-old, who boasts well over a half million followers on Instagram, has shared she’s been baptised and more. “I’m being loud and proud about my walk with Jesus Christ. Proclaiming my love for him is opening so many people’s eyes to the fact that they are not irredeemable.” 

More and more of those publicly excited about church attendance and new life in Jesus, or the opportunity for it, look less like the stereotypical pew warmer and more akin to the socially left leaning. 

When Neeza Powers started chronicling his first 100 days back at church on Instagram, he never expected to lay down his transgender identity or confess he’d found salvation in Christ. He now embraces his God-given identity as a man, as does his partner, Charlotte, who previously identified as a lesbian in a relationship with a trans woman.

Likewise, Becky Weiss, a lesbian and mother, has gone viral opening up about her return to church, inspired by Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. In one video, Weiss explains her background growing up extremely involved in church. “I grew up about as involved in the church as one can be. I went to Christian schools K-12. I went to church on Sundays, to youth groups, to the retreats, to the summer camps. By high school I was on the worship team and by college group I was leading the worship team. And then I walked away, in my early 20s, and I’ve been away for about the last decade.” Going on, she explains her emotional experience since returning to church a few months ago: “I didn’t know how hard my heart was until I started feeling it soften. I didn’t realise how tense my soul was, until that tension started becoming alleviated.” Becky’s on to something. Believers gain eternal life with Jesus through the complete opposite of her formative church experience. Her conformity looked and played the part outwardly, but the secret sauce to transformation in Christ is the white flag: total surrender.

Those who don’t want Trump to be transformed

We could end this list of controversial characters there, but I won’t. Maybe we would accept a seat alongside the overtly debaucherous in heaven, but what about the contentiously despised? The leader of the free world raised international eyeballs when he recently quipped about earning a place in heaven by ending the Russia/Ukraine war. Later, he lamented he didn’t think he could do anything to get there, seeing himself as ranking on a lower tier of heavenly city hopefuls. Christian Fox News host, Laura Ingraham, interviewed Trump, asking: “A lot of Christians were sort of sad to hear that because Christ came to forgive our sins (we believe that as Christians), and open heaven to all of us, so don’t you believe that?” The American President scoffed at his previous answer as sarcasm. A simple online search shows Donald Trump identifies as Christian, yet although inscrutably confident on every other subject, even he stops short on the assurance of his soul’s salvation. 

Many Christians feel zealously sure that Trump deserves anything but a blood-bought place in glory

If there’s one thing I’ve found many Christians feel zealously sure of, it’s that Trump deserves anything but a blood-bought place in glory. There are 1000+ Etsy listings of anti-Trump memorabilia, with depictions of him as everything from a parasite to the anti-Christ. Corrie ten Boom was famously quoted as saying: “There is no pit so deep God’s love is not deeper still,” yet, for many, Donald J Trump’s soul lies just beyond reach of Holy Spirit excavation, and they’re good with that. 

I leave you with this parable:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:10–14).

Perhaps Trump’s revelation he can’t earn a place in heaven reveals more than he intended. Knowing we don’t deserve heaven is the first step toward getting there…that’s nothing a little transformation can’t fix.