Hi,
I would like to ask you some questions: Do you know if you were to die today if you would go to Heaven, or hell, or maybe you are not sure or you have never even thought about it. Maybe you will say “I don’t know” or “I hope I would go to Heaven but I am not 100% sure”.
The reason why I asked is because the Bible says in 1 John 5:13:
“These things have I written unto you” – referring to the word of God, the verse goes on “that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life”.
According to this verse one of the reasons that the Bible was written is so that we could know that we have eternal life. The verse ends “and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God”.
Maybe you would say “Well, I think I would go to Heaven”. The question I have for you is “What gives you that assurance that you are on your way to Heaven?”, “What give you that confidence?”, “What are you trusting to get you to Heaven?” Maybe you would say: “Well, I am just doing my best. I’m trying to follow Jesus and live by the way God would like me to live”. The last question I have for you is this: “Do you believe there is anything you could do, any sin you could potentially commit that would cause you to not go to Heaven, that would cause you to lose your salvation?”..
The Bible says you can be 100% sure you are on your way to Heaven. And it has nothing to do with how good of a person you are, or how you live your life, or how religious you are. I would like to share with you from the Bible how you can have the confidence that you are on your way to Heaven.
In Romans 3:10 the Bible says “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”
That first part of the word “righteous” is “right”. Someone who is righteous is someone who always does right or is without wrong. A word that you and I might use would be “perfect”. And what this verse is saying is that “there is none righteous“, or we could say “there is none perfect, no, not one“. I’m sure you would agree with the fact that we are not perfect, we all make mistakes.
In Romans 3:23 the Bible goes to not only say that we are not perfect, but it is says this:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;“.
1 John 3:4 defines the word sin as “the transgression of the law“. When we transgress God’s law, or when we break God’s law – we’ve sinned. And here the Bible says “For all have sinned”. That word “all” – that means “everybody”: I’ve sinned, you’ve sinned.
Now the reason that I bring these two verses up, that “there is none righteous” and that we are “all sinners” is because in Romans 6:23 the Bible says this:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. The first part of this verse says “The wages of sin is death”.
The word “wages” means “payment”. It’s what I earn. If I go work at a fast-food restaurant they probably are going to start me off at a minimum wage. Now when I work what I earn is money, but when I sin what I earn is death: “the wages of sin is death“.
In Revelation 20:14 the Bible says this about death:
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire“.
Now the “lake of fire” is the place of torment, where people are tormented day and night in fire and brimstone and where people pay for their sins (Revelation 20:10). And it says: “ This is the second death“. Have you ever heard of a “second death” before?
The second death, according to this verse, is the lake of fire. It says they “were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death“. So see, when someone dies physically, that’s just the initial death, or the first death, but when someone then is cast into the lake of fire – the experience the second death.
In Revelation 20:15 the Bible says this:
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”.
In Revelation 21:8 God actually gives us a list of who is going to the lake of fire. And notice what He says:
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters” – now, so far it’s a pretty bad list – murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters. Most people would think “Oh yeah, murderer is going to go to hell”. But at the end of the list he says this: “and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”. Have you ever told a lie before?
Romans 3:4 says “let God be true, but every man a liar”.
The point that God is trying to make when He gives us this list of sins that would send you to hell and He says “abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters”, and then at the end of this list He adds sin that we’ve all committed, which is telling a lie. The point that God is trying to make is that there is none righteous, that we are all sinners, and although you maybe haven’t killed anyone, you’ve at least told a lie before.
James 2:10 kind of brings this thought together. It says:
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all“.
If you were able to keep the entire law, and all you did was to offend in one point, you made one mistake, you told one lie, the Bible says “he is guilty of all”. And here is what we need to understand: no matter how good of a person you are you are still a sinner, we are all sinners, and our sin has a payment which is death, which is hell. And it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are or how religious you are, because it doesn’t undo the fact that you are a sinner. I like to use an illustration of an individual that robs a car, and let’s say they get rid of the car, they part it out, they sell it, they get arrested and they stand before the judge. If they are going to say to that judge: “From now on I am not going to steal cars, from now on I’m going to live a good life, from now on I’m going to help little old ladies to cross the street”. Do you think that judge would say to that individual “Okay, you are free to go”. Well, the answer to this is “no”. Why? Because they’ve already stolen a car, they’ve already broken the law. It doesn’t matter how many good things they do after that – they’ve already broken the law. And it’s the same with us. It doesn’t matter how much I go to church, or how good of a person I try to be, and we should all try to live a good life, but I’ve already broken the God’s law, I’m already a sinner. And we are ALL condemned to hell.
Romans 6:23 again says “For the wages of sin is death“.
Now that’s the bad news. The bad news is this: I’m a sinner, and you are a sinner. And our sin has condemned us to hell. But that’s not the end of the verse: the good news is this “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. See, God has a gift He wants to give us. And that gift is eternal life, and it’s through Jesus Christ. There is something you need to understand about the gift that God wants to give you.
In Ephesians 2:8 the Bible says this: “For by grace are ye saved through faith;”
The word “grace” means “free”. Have you ever heard of a “grace period”? Let’s say rent is due on the first, but they give you till the fifth to pay it. They call it a “grace period”. It’s free time. The word “grace” means you are getting something you did not earn, you do not deserve, it’s unmerited favor. And God says “For by grace” – He says “by the fact that I’m going to give you something you do not deserve, you didn’t earn it. He says “are ye saved“. You say “saved from what?“. Well, from hell. We don’t want to go there. He says “through faith“. The word “faith” means “to believe”. And it says: “and that not of yourselves“. He says if you are going to be saved, it is not going to be something that you produce, not something that you do. Here is why: “it is the gift of God:“.
I like to use an illustration to help explain this verse. Let’s say I would go out and purchase a birthday gift for you. If I gave you the birthday gift and I said “here you go! Happy Birthday! And then I asked you to give me $30 because that is how much I paid for the gift – that would no longer be a gift, if you gave me money for it, because you would be purchasing it at that point.
What if I said I am going to give you this free birthday gift, and you don’t have to give me any money for it, but you have to wash my car or you have to mow my loan? Well, if you were to do those things – that would no longer be a gift, because you are now working for it. A gift, by definition, is free. And you cannot be expected to pay, or earn, or work for a gift.
Ephesians 2:9 says this: “not of works” – in reference to the gift. He says: “not of works, least any man should boast“. God does not expect us to work for a gift, God does not expect us to do anything for the gift. The gift is free.
Sometimes people say “I was taught, and I was under the impression that salvation is not of works, but if you truly get saved then works will follow”. But in Romans 4:5 the Bible says this:
“But to him that worketh not“. I want you to notice that it does not say “to him that workerth a little bit”, it says: “to him that worketh not”. This person did absolutely nothing. It says “ to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”. So here we see an individual that did no works – it says they worked not, but they believed, they had faith – their faith is counted for righteousness. This verse is teaching us that it is possible for someone to believe and have no works.
Sometimes people will say “well, what about repentance? Don’t we have to repent of our sins in order to be saved?” The word “repent”, if you study it out in the Scripture, simply means “to turn”, “to change direction”, or “to change your mind”. When someone turns from their sin God defines that as “works”. In Jonah 3:10 the Bible says this:
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way“.
It is a good thing to turn from your evil ways, and it is a good thing to turn away from your sins, but God defines returning from your evil way as “works”. So we must understand that “turning from our evil ways”, “turning from our sins” can not be a part of salvation, because as soon as I do anything in order to be saved I’ve added works to salvation.
Sometimes people will ask: “Well, didn’t Jesus teach on repenting? Didn’t John the Baptist teach on repenting?” But you got to understand what it is that they taught, because the word “repent”, like we’ve said, means to “change your mind”, or to “turn”. In Mark 1:15 the Bible says, about Jesus preaching:
“And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
So you notice in the preaching of Christ that if someone would to repent, what would come forth from that repentance is the fact that they would believe the gospel. In Matthew 21:32 Jesus comments on the preaching of John the Baptist, when he preached on repentance and He said this:
“For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him“.
So there He is looking at the Pharisees and saying “you did not believe him, the publicans and the harlots did believe him, and you did not repent afterward, that ye might believe him”. So what He is saying here is “you didn’t believe, but you should have repented and believed”.
In Acts 19:4 the apostle Paul also comments on what it was that John the Baptist was preaching when he preached on repentance and the Bible says this:
“Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus”.
So it is very consistent in Scripture that when Jesus or John taught on repentance, what they were teaching was that people should “turn from unbelief” in order to believe on Jesus Christ. The example that I like to give is this: if someone is an atheist in order for them to be saved they have to stop being an atheist, they have to “turn” or “repent” from that belief of being an atheist, and believe on God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
See we do believe that repentance could be a part of salvation in a sense that someone has to “turn from their unbelief” in order to be saved. But as soon as you turn from your evil way, you are not adding works to salvation. By the way, the phrase “repent of your sins” is not even found in the Scripture, because God does not expect us to repent of our sins in order to be saved. Salvation is not of works. If salvation was something that I earned, something that I worked for, then it would no longer be a gift.
If I were to give you a gift, then I am the giver and you are the receiver, I can’t expect you to pay for the gift, I can’t expect you to do anything for it. But does that mean that it didn’t cost me anything? If I am giving you the gift – I paid for the gift, because I am the giver. The gift of God is exactly the same way. It doesn’t cost us anything and we don’t have to do anything in order to be saved, because we are the sinners. But it cost God something in order to be able to purchase our gift of salvation.
Romans 5:8 says this: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world, – that is you and I – that he gave his only begotten Son – that is Jesus Christ – , that whosoever – that means anyone – believeth – that’s the faith – in him –that’s Jesus – should not perish, – that is means they won’t go to hell – but have everlasting life.
See, the gospel is this: that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that He lives a sinless life, He never sinned, that He was God in the flash, and He died not to pay for His own sin, because He had no sin, but He died to pay for our sins.
Matthew 1:23 says: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us“. Jesus was God in the flash and He dies on the cross to pay for our sins. The Bible says that He was buried. The books of Acts tells us that His soul went down to hell for three days and three nights, and He resurrected from the grave. That was the payment for our sin. And He did that to give us everlasting life, just as the last two words in John 3:16 say.
John 3:15 is very similar to John 3:16, it says “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life”. The word “eternal” means “it will last forever”. The word “everlasting” means “it will never end”. And what God is saying here that He wants to give us the life that will last forever, life that will never end.
John 3:36 says “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life”. That word “hath” means “you have it”, you “possess it”. So it’s not something you are going to get in the future, but it’s something you have the moment you believe.
What if God would give you eternal or everlasting life, starting today? How long will it last for? When will it end? The answer to this is NEVER. It will never end, it will last forever, it’s life without end.
I would like to ask you a question: what of God were to give you everlasting life and let’s say, you were to do something terrible, like, for example, walk in a bank, rob the bank and kill somebody. Or let’s say you were to do something horrible, like taking your own life? Do you believe that God would then take away your everlasting life?.. Here is the thing: if God takes away your everlasting life, then it didn’t last forever. He cannot take it away – that’s what makes it everlasting life.
Titus 1:2 says this: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began”. See, God can not lie – that is our hope of eternal life. It is a valid questions, when people ask “What if I commit some horrible sin in the future?“. Here is what you have to understand: when Jesus forgives your sins – He forgives ALL of your sins: your past sins, your present sins, and all the sins you are going to perform in the future. He has already paid for those sins – that is how He can guarantee you everlasting life.
In John 10:28-29 Jesus Christ is saying this: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand“.
See, once you are saved, the Bible says, that “no man” is able to pluck you out of your Father’s hand, no one is able to pluck you out of the hands of Jesus Christ, and you will never perish, because you have eternal life.
Sometimes people say: “Well, aren’t you telling people that once they are saved they can do whatever they want, aren’t you, basically, saying that there are no consequences for their sin?” And we are not saying that at all! See, when you get saved, the Bible says, you enter into relationships with God: He becomes your Father. John 1:12 says:
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”.
And our Heavenly Father disciplines us when we sin. He doesn’t take away our salvation, but He does discipline us.
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