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How
To Be Sure of Heaven
Your
Eternity When
you die, where will you spend eternity? Notice that I didn’t say,
"if you die", but "when you die". You will spend it
somewhere, but where? We live in time, but eternity is forever, and ever,
and ever. A simple analogy is that 10,000 years is like a single grain of
sand, whereas eternity is like a sandy beach 10,000 miles long, and wide,
and deep. The Bible says that once born, we live forever. While we are on
earth, we will decide where we will spend eternity. Why is it then that
many of us spend more time on investigating what car to buy than on where
we will spend eternity?
The
Truth In
John 17:17, Jesus said in His prayer to his Father "Sanctify them by
the truth; your word is truth". Our Lord repeatedly quoted from the
Scriptures. In his threefold temptation, he responded to Satan each time
with a quotation from the Old Testament. He spoke of the authority and
permanence of the Scripture: "scripture cannot be broken" (John
10:35). If we believe in Jesus, then we must believe in everything that He
said and did. If Jesus lied about anything, then he is a Liar and not
Lord. Therefore, since Jesus believed in the Scriptures, the basis for
this discussion is nothing more than the Bible itself, the Word of God.
Heaven
is most
simply defined as where God is. It is a place of rest (Heb. 4:9), of glory
(2 Cor. 4:17), of holiness (Rev. 21:27), of worship (Rev. 19:1), of
fellowship with others (Heb. 12:23), and of being with God (Rev. 21:3).
The prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us begins with "Our Father in
heaven" (Matt. 6:9).
Only
One God You
may wonder about other religions and other gods. Again, the Bible makes it
clear that "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5) and "I am the first and I am
the last; apart from me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6). Jesus Christ
was extremely precise when He discussed the issue of the salvation of man.
He made a statement that some may consider close-minded, but He made no
apology for it:
"Enter
through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that
leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and
narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matt.
7:13-14)
You
may say: "That’s very narrow-minded." However, being
broad-minded can be very foolish if what you are broad-minded about is not
true. Truth is narrow and absolute. Two times two always equals four. The
issue is the truth - not what we feel, not what we think, not what seems
right, but what God teaches in His Word. "There is a way that seems
right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Prov. 14:12).
Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
Love
Relationship Heaven
is spending eternity with the God of the Bible. In fact, this is why God
created mankind in the first place. God is Love (1 John 4:8), and God is
Life (John 14:6), and God created mankind so that He could share His Love
and Life. God was not lonely because He is self-sufficient, but He created
us to have an eternal Love Relationship with Him. God desires that each of
us enters into this personal relationship, but He doesn’t force us to
(like robots). Since true love is only possible when we are free to
choose, he allows us to decide whether we want to establish this
relationship with Him.
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Basic
Human Composition God
created mankind with a body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess 5:23). Our
body is the physical form and our soul is our inward attitudes (a
mind to know Him, emotions to love Him, and a will to choose Him).
The human spirit is the part of man that enables him to relate to
and know God. It was created to be dependent upon and united with
God’s Spirit, and was the means through which he enjoyed perfect
fellowship with God.
Creation
of Man Unlike
all other forms of life that God created, He imparted to man of His
own Divine Life (Genesis 2:7). That is, God’s Life (Spirit) was
united (infused) with man’s human spirit. Therefore, man was both
physically alive (body in union with soul/spirit) and spiritually
alive (spirit in union with God). Man bore a full visible expression
of the invisible God who lived in them and was dependent upon God
for his spiritual life.
The
Meaning of the Fall God
wanted His relationship with man to be a love relationship, received
and expressed back to Him through the agency of faith. Therefore,
man had to be given a free will, because love can only be possible
where it is given freely. There had to be a point of decision where
Adam and Eve demonstrated that their love of God was truly of their
own free will. Therefore they were offered a chance to step out of
their dependent relationship with God and to assume independent
status - to be their own gods (Genesis 3:4-5).
The
Result of the Fall Even
though God had said, "for when you eat of it you will surely
die" (Genesis 2:17), they did not die physically that day. In
fact they lived 950 years. However, they did die spiritually that
day. God honored their choice to live independently from Him and
withdrew His Life from them, leaving them spiritually dead, and on
their own. As a result of Adam’s choice, every person is born into
this world a sinner by nature and spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3
and 4:18).
Our
Problem Just
as Adam and Eve had the opportunity to step out of their dependent
love relationship with God, we have the opportunity to establish
one. But now there is a problem. God is Holy, and Righteous, and
Just in nature and those who want to be in His presence must be Holy
and Righteous as well (Lev. 11:44). We must be perfect with no
presence of sin whatsoever. His holy unalterable nature demands it.
Unfortunately, we are born into this world with a genetic disease
called sin, and it has contaminated our very nature (Romans 5:12).
Therefore, due to our condition (sinful nature and spiritually
dead), we are destined for a godless eternity.
What
About Our Behavior ? Unlike
all other forms of life that God created, He imparted to man of His
own Divine Life (Genesis 2:7). That is, God’s Life (Spirit) was
united (infused) with man’s human spirit. Therefore, man was both
physically alive (body in union with soul/spirit) and spiritually
alive (spirit in union with God). Man bore a full visible expression
of the invisible God who lived in them and was dependent upon God
for his spiritual life.
Furthermore,
there is absolutely nothing that a person can do to change his
helpless and hopeless condition by himself (Romans 5:6). You can
change your behavior all you want, but you can’t change your
contaminated sinful nature. In addition, just as a physically dead
person cannot restore his physical life, neither can a spiritually
dead person give himself spiritual life. Only God can revitalize our
dead spirit by infusing His Spirit. Only God Himself can change our
helpless condition.
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More
Bad News Due
to our primary problem, our sin nature, we also have a
secondary problem - our ensuing acts of sin. These sins can be
thoughts, words, behaviors, etc., and these personal sins also
make us incompatible with a Holy God. Religion is behavior
modification, but it doesn’t change our heart, and it
can’t change our helpless condition. What about our good
works? The bible says that from God’s holy perspective
"all our righteous acts are like filthy rags"
(Isaiah 64:6). What about good people? The bible says that
"No one is good--except God alone" (Mark 10:18).
God’s
Only Provision Since
God is omniscient, He knew that Adam and Eve would sin, and He
allowed us to be in the helpless condition that we are in.
Why? One reason is that God wanted to demonstrate his
incredible love for us (Romans 5:8) by giving us what we
needed more than anything, what we don’t deserve, and what
we can’t obtain on our own. God wanted it to be a invaluable
gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), not something that we could earn.
He
would also provide this Gift at great sacrifice to Himself.
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his
life for his friends" (John 15:13). God also wanted to
initiate this love relationship ("he first loved us"
- John 4:19), and He wanted it to be expressed back to Him
through the agency of faith. Finally, and most importantly,
God’s only provision for our condition is through the Death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Both
Halves of the Gospel There
are two primary issues that God had to address in changing our
condition: the sin (nature) issue, and the (spiritual) life
issue. The Bible says:
"For
if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son, how much more, having been
reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" (Romans
5:10)
God’s
solution to the sin issue was Christ’s death on the cross,
and His solution to the life issue was Christ’s
resurrection. You cannot have one without the other, but
neither can you mistake one for the other. The good news of
the gospel is not just that Christ came to die for you, but
that He came to live in you via the Holy Spirit.
The
Finality of the Cross-the
Bible says, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans
3:23). This is both physical death and spiritual death
(separation from God). As we mentioned before, man had a
problem, but only God could solve it. Although God’s
holiness demanded separation, His love in action provided the
solution. God would become man (John 1:14) in Jesus Christ,
and as man, Christ paid your sin debt in Full and died your
death on the cross. He would rather die for you than live
without you.
When
God placed all of the sins of all mankind on the sinless
Christ (1 Peter 2:24), the pain was so deep that Christ cried
out “My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
(Mark 15:34) Requesting all those around Him to remember Psalm
22. Until that point, He had always spoken of God as His
Father, but now the closeness was gone because “God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21)
It
is Finished - Once For All If
one finite man brought sin into the world, surely the infinite
God-Man (Christ) could take it away (Romans 5:15). The One who
is the source of life certainly can take the place of all of
His creation. Therefore, as far as the sin issue is concerned,
"It is Finished" (John 19:50), as Christ
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died Once For All
(Hebrews 10:10). Although God’s offer is available to
everyone, this Gift must be accepted on an individual
basis. Otherwise, it is like a paycheck that is never
picked up or like a gift certificate that is not
redeemed. How can you receive this gift? Only one way,
through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8).
The
Reality of the Resurrection But
Christ’s finished work on the cross is only half of
the Gospel. Christ’s death on the cross was not an end
in itself; it was a means to an end: the restoring of
spiritual life to men! Jesus Christ laid down his life
for you, so that He could give his life to you, so that
He could live His life through you! The Greek word for
physical life is "bios" and is found in only
11 New Testament verses. But the Greek word for
spiritual life is "zoe" and is found 124 times
in the New Testament.
The
Zoe Life Due
to the fall, man is separated from the life [zoe] of God
(Eph. 4:18). Christ was zoe in the flesh (1 John 1:2).
Jesus said that He was the way, the truth, and the zoe
(John 14:6). Christ is the author of life [zoe] (Acts
3:15). Christ laid down his life [zoe] for us so that He
could give it to us (John 10:11 and 12:24). We are made
spiritually alive in union with Christ’s life [zoe]
(Eph. 2:4, Col. 2:13). Jesus made it very clear:
"
I have come that they may have life [zoe], and have it
to the full." (John 10:10)
Christ
didn’t come to "help" us live the Christian
life. He came so that He could live (express) His life [zoe]
through us (Col 3:4, Gal 2:20). When Christ came to
earth and lived as a man, he demonstrated the way that
God intended every person to live - a life of faith and
total dependency upon His Father. Jesus said "The
words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is
the Father, living in me, who is doing his work"
(John 14:10).
Salvation
Salvation
is deliverance from eternal death and possession of
eternal life, and eternal life is the life of the
eternal one, Jesus Christ. There is a popular myth about
Salvation that (1) if a person is good enough, (2) then
when he dies, (3) maybe he will get this (4) thing
called eternal life. Unfortunately, this is not at all
what the Bible says:
"And
this is the testimony: God has given us eternal
life [zoe], and this life [zoe] is in his Son. He who
has the Son has life [zoe]; he who does not have
the Son of God does not have life [zoe]. I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God
so that you may know that you have eternal
life [zoe]." (1 John 5:11-13)
Examine
The Verses First
of all; eternal life is a gift that God gives. Jesus
himself said, "If you knew the gift of God"
(John 4:10). Also see "the gift of God is eternal
life" (Romans 6:23). As we have discussed before,
it is not something that you can earn nor be good enough
for.
Second,
eternal life is not a thing. Eternal Life is the person
of Jesus Christ himself living on the inside of us. In
fact, the biblical definition of a Christian is one in
whom Christ lives. "Examine yourselves to see
whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you
not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of
course, you fail the test?" (2 Cor. 13:5).
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Third, you
don’t receive eternal life when you die. Eternal
life starts the moment that an individual receives
Christ as his Savior because it is at that time
that Christ begins to live in him (John 1:12,
Revelation 3:20).
Finally,
eternal life is not a maybe. You can know for sure
that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). In fact,
God wants you to be sure that you have eternal
life. It is not based on your performance, but by
trusting in Christ’s performance for us at the
cross.
What
about the Holy Spirit? Jesus
Christ dwells in us through the person of the Holy
Spirit. The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is
the life of Christ in us. It is the work of the
Holy Spirit in us as believers to live through us
the life of Christ. This is why the phrases
"Spirit of God lives in you" and
"Christ lives in you" are used
interchangeably in Romans 8:9-10.
What
Does It Mean to Believe in Christ? To
believe in Christ does not simply mean that you
know and agree on facts about him. "You
believe that there is one God. Good! Even the
demons believe that--and shudder" (James
2:19). Rather, it means to place your complete
trust in the person of Jesus Christ - who He is,
what He said, and what He did. Repentance means to
change your mind about something and then to
respond appropriately. If you are driving down the
street and you realize (believe) that you are
going the wrong direction, you turn around and go
the other direction (repent).
To
believe in Christ means that you agree that He was
God in the flesh. You agree in what He said that
you can only be saved through Him alone, and that
there is nothing that you can do to save yourself.
"Who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them
and said, With man this is impossible, but with
God all things are possible" (Matt.
19:25-26). Finally, you place your complete trust
in what He did for you - that He paid your sin
debt in full via His death on the cross.
No
Incentive to Live a Good Life ? On
the contrary - although this is an understandable
misconception that perhaps seems true on the
surface. But one vital overwhelming fact is
overlooked: when a person establishes a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, an internal
revolution takes place in that person’s life.
God’s Spirit infuses his life into the person,
and the spiritual core of the person becomes
alive. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come!" (2 Cor. 5:17)
Just
like physically dead people don’t like to eat
food, spiritually dead people are not interested
in the things of God. But when God makes us alive,
then spiritual realities that before didn’t
interest us, suddenly become vitally interesting,
and we have a greater sensitivity to sin. Because
we Love Jesus Christ and recognize what He has
done for us by giving His life in love, we find
that we want to do everything that will please Him
and to do nothing that will displease or hurt Him.
Jesus said "If you love me, you will obey
what I command" (John 14:15). Love is a much
stronger incentive to obey than the fear of the
club ever was.
Eternal
Rewards Although
our behavior and good works don’t have anything
to do with being saved, they do have
something to do with the life of the saved person.
It has been said that good people don’t go to
Heaven, only saved people do. Of course good
people who have been saved go to Heaven where they
are rewarded for what they have done. "Then
he will reward each person according to what he
has done" (Matt. 16:27).
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The two
criminals who were on separate crosses next
to Jesus sure weren’t good. Crucifixion
was reserved only for the worst criminals
(often murderers). In fact, by law a Roman
citizen could not even be crucified because
it was so cruel. Jesus told the one criminal
who believed in Him "I tell you the
truth, today you will be with me in
paradise" (Like 23:43). Yes he was
saved, but probably with no rewards.
Priorities
Jesus
made it quite clear what our priorities in
life should be. He said, "seek first
his kingdom" (Matt. 6:33). "Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
… But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, … For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also" (Matt.
6:19-21). "What good is it for a man to
gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
(Mark 8:36).
It’s
About Time Time
is the key factor. Every person has only the
length of a lifetime to restore a personal
relationship with God. God knows exactly how
many days that He gave you on earth (Ps
139:16) to make a decision that you will
have to live with for eternity. He gave some
of us short physical lives and some of us
long physical lives. But you don’t know
how long your life will be, and relatively
speaking all of our lives are short.
"What is your life? You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then
vanishes" (James 4:14).
"Be
very careful, then, how you live--not as
unwise but as wise" (Eph 5:15). The
time is now. Now is the time to make a
decision because you don’t know if there
will be another time. Most people who died
today didn’t think that they were going to
do so yesterday. "But God said to him,
`You fool! This very night your life will be
demanded from you" (Luke 12:20).
Eternity is not something that you want to
bet your life on.
How
You Can be Sure of Heaven Assurance
of Heaven is not based on pride in any way,
shape, or form since our assurance has
nothing to do with what we do for God, but
rather with what God has done for us in
Jesus Christ. Basically, the person who says
that he knows he will be in heaven is simply
taking God at his word. In fact, it is
simply arrogant (and sinful) not to believe
God.
In
order to spend eternity in Heaven, you must
have a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. Therefore, the way that you can be
sure that you will be in heaven depends upon
the way that you answer the question
"Have I ever personally, specifically,
and definitely entered into a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ?". One
of the illustrations that the New Testament
uses to describe this relationship is
Marriage (Rev. 21:9). Note that You must
know Christ personally, not simply know
about him.
"Not
everyone who says to me, "Lord,
Lord," will enter the kingdom of
heaven, … Then I will tell them plainly, I
never knew you. Away from me, … (Matt
7:21,23)".
Establishing
Your Relationship The
clearest statement in the New Testament on
how to establish this relationship with God
is John 1:12. The three key verbs in this
verse are Believe, Receive, and Become.
In general, you need to believe in Christ
and personally receive Him into your life.
But in order to believe in Christ, you need
to know something. So to summarize
everything that I am trying to communicate,
here are the basic steps:
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1.
Know Something
a.
Your Condition
1)
You have a sinful nature and are
spiritually dead
2)
You are unable to change it by
yourself
b.
God’s Only Provision for your
Condition
1)
Christ’s death on the Cross and His
Resurrected Life
2.
Believe in Someone
a.
Place your trust in the Person of
Jesus Christ
1)
Who He is (the God-Man)
2)
What he said about your condition and
God’s only provision
3)
What he did (He died in your place and
purified you from all sin)
3.
Receive Someone
a.
The Resurrected Christ as Your
Personal Savior
b.
The Resurrected Christ into Your Life
1)
Making you Spiritually Alive
2)
Giving you Eternal Life (His Life)
Conclusion In
Revelation 3:20, Jesus tells us how we
can receive Him. He compares our lives
to a house, and He is knocking at the
door. He wants you to open the door
and Invite Him in. Simply thinking
about getting married doesn’t make
you married. It requires total
commitment and an act of the will.
Just as getting married means giving
up our independence and living in a
consultative relationship with our
spouse so does receiving Christ.
Christ wants a dynamic and eternal
relationship with you. He wants you to
depend upon and trust Him, and He
wants to be involved in every area of
your life. The Lord Jesus Christ is
knocking at the door of your life now.
Will you let Him in?
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