This life is but brief compared to eternity, but do you consider where you will end up when you die? There is hope, but in a world of lies it is important where you put your faith or trust. Jesus says that faith can be as small as a mustard seed.
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you – Luke 17:6
Everyone has faith in something or someone, but for heaven it is important to put your faith in the right person.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures – 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
God’s Holy Living Word says that all are guilty, because we’ve all sinned and come short of his glory.
for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; – Romans 3:23
God’s holy standard is the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws that he gave in the Old Testament. We all stand guilty.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all – James 2:10
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6 And the tongue isa fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8 but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison – James 3:5-8
For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me – Psalm 40:12
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. – Romans 3:20
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. – Galatians 2:16
In one way or another, we must be honest with God and admit that we cannot save ourselves. Even after we are born again, we still have the old sin nature in the flesh. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death, and no amount of good works can pay for sin. A death payment for sin is required, but the problem is that most of us believe that we have some inerrant level of goodness within us to merit heaven.
God’s Word says that we all stand guilty. Would you rather believe God, who cannot lie, or human philosophy by the god of this world, Satan, who the Bible says is the father of lies in John 8:44. Although there is bad news in Romans 6:23, it also speaks of the gift of God, which is available to everyone through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord – Romans 6:23
To go to heaven, we must have be perfect, and only Jesus Christ, who is the express image of God the Father, can give us that righteousness when we put our trust in Him.
who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; – Hebrews 1:3
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him – 2 Corinthians 5:21
even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: – Romans 3:22
Jesus died for sinners (everyone). The gospel of our salvation, or the good news, is that Jesus paid for sin, was buried, and he rose on the third day, and he gives the free gift of eternal life to whomsoever will trust in Him as their saviour who paid for their sin. When Jesus died, all of our sin was in the future, therefore all sin is paid.
who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself – Hebrews 7:27
but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; – Hebrews 10:12
Answer this, if Jesus has paid for all of your sin, how much sin is left to pay for? NONE.
Therefore, you can know that you are going to heaven because faith in Him gives you the righteousness of Christ.
We can know that we have assurance of eternal life when we trust in Jesus Christ, because God cannot lie.
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself – Hebrews 6:13
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God – John 3:16-18
Notice that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world (John 3:17), because those who reject Jesus Christ and His sin payment are condemned already and stand under the wrath of God.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him – John 3:36
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life – John 6:47
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. – 1 John 5:11-13
Religion is rampant in this world, but religion is trying to reach God by human merit and believes that God will accept people on a scale of human merit or goodness.
All righteousness are as filthy rags before God. Every man at his best state is vanity.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away – Isaiah 64:6
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah – Psalm 39:4-5
Good works cannot pay for sin, and we need the righteousness of God to go to heaven. This is why we need to be born again through faith in Christ. Christianity is God trying to reach down to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ. He gives us the gift of eternal life through grace upon our faith in Christ. This it the simplicity that is in Christ.
Much of Christianity today is corrupting the gospel of grace by adding a degree of works upon faith in Christ, either front loading it with statements like we need to repent of sin or give our life to Christ to go to heaven, or they backload it by saying that a ‘true’ believer will reform, and if reformation is not present, then that person was never saved to begin with. God says that we are saved by grace – unmerited kindness, and not of works.
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; – Titus 3:5
Grace and works cannot mix. There is no rest and no assurance of salvation if one is resting in their own righteousness to get to heaven. Religion says do. Christianity says done.
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work – Romans 11:6
who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began – 2 Timothy 1:9
My heart is inditing a good matter:I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. 2 Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever – Psalm 45:1-2
To reject the finished work of Christ is saying to God that He is a liar. We must not rely on feelings, but the Word of God. God gives us the gift of eternal life through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 not of works, lest any man should boast – Ephesians 2:8-9
Just one sin is enough to keep us out of heaven, and all unbelievers stand condemned. We enter into God’s family and are born again when we receive the righteousness of Christ through trusting in Him.
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life – Revelation 21:27
Upon trust in Christ, we are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Those who are not written in the Lambs book of life, are thrown into the lake of fire.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire – Revelation 20:15.
Put your faith, as small as a mustard seed, in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and receive the free gift of salvation and you can know for certain that you will go to heaven when you die.
Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house –
Later, in the context of this verse, Paul gave the prison guard the gospel, and both he and his family believed, unto everlasting life. You can too!
Believe God’s plan of salvation and fulfil God’s will (John 6:39-40) by putting your faith in Christ, and enter into his rest.
If you are grateful for the gift of everlasting life, serve God out of gratitude in what he has done for you, and receive blessings in this life and rewards in heaven. God has amazing kindness for each of us, and the gospel is so simple to believe and accept that is is ridiculed and rejected. Man’s interpretations of God’s plan of salvation has made salvation difficult, when it sadly doesn’t need to be.
God does not send anyone to hell, but if people reject the finished work of Christ because of human pride or secular humanism philosophies, they condemn themselves because human works will never earn the righteousness of God. Only the work of Jesus Christ, the sinless lamb of God, could do that which we could never do. Trust in Him for eternal life, and not righteousness.
There will come a day when the unbeliever at the White Throne Judgement will be judged by the work of Jesus Christ. No one but the believer in Christ, will make it. Believe in Christ today.
because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead – Acts 17:31
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