Where will you spend eternity?
The sobering fact of life is that every one of us will die one day, and the Bible tells us that we will spend eternity in one of two places:
Heaven or Hell.
The one is a place where there is no sin, pain, suffering, or sorrow but light, peace, joy, and praising God for eternity…while the other is a place of darkness, and an unquenchable fire…eternal weeping and suffering, separated from God. God tells us in His Word that the only way to get to heaven is through His Son, Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully man and the only person to have ever walked this earth and never sinned. “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22)
The Bible tells us that “there is none who do good, no not one.” (Romans 3:12) and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) ALL have sinned, that means me and you and everyone else on this earth. You may look at some people and say, “Well, so and so is a good person. Surely God would let them into heaven.” God is holy and cannot allow any sin into heaven. He requires perfect, sinlessness, and His standard for that is the Ten Commandments:
1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall make no idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (using God’s name lightly as a curse word).
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother (obeyed your dad and mom every single time).
6. You shall not murder (Jesus said that even if you hate someone in your heart, that is murder).
7. You shall not commit adultery (Jesus also said that if you look with lust, you’ve committed adultery in your heart).
8. You shall not steal (taking anything that doesn’t belong to you, no matter how small).
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet (sinfully desiring something that someone else has).
If you were to stand before God right now, how would you do with these Ten Commandments? Would God find you innocent or guilty of breaking them? God says that if we have broken just one of these commandments, we are guilty.
“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)
“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
Imagine yourself in a court of law – you’ve committed a crime, broken the law, and you’re standing before the judge. You might say, “But judge, look, I’ve done all these good things over here. Doesn’t that outweigh my bad?” If a judge was to let a criminal go because he had done one or two good things, most of us would agree – that is a bad judge. God is a good judge and He cannot let sin go unpunished. There must be a payment for it. He tells us that “the wages of sin is death…” That’s a pretty bleak sentence.
But here’s the rest of that verse that is very good news. 🙂
“…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
God paid our court fine. Out of His great love for us, He came to the earth, 2,000 years ago in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, lived a perfect sinless life, suffered a cruel death on a Roman cross, was buried, and came back to life three days later. Jesus was the only one able to conquer sin and death, because He was the perfect, sinless Son of God.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (John 3:16-21)
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
And He offers salvation to you and I as a free gift! “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
You don’t have to try to be good enough or do a bunch of good works to be able to receive God’s salvation. It is a gift. And all that He asks you to do is:
1. Repent of your sins. Have true sorrow over your sins, tell God you’re sorry for disobeying His commandments, and turn away from following after sin.
2. Put your trust in Jesus and the work He did on the cross. Believe that He has the power to save you and make you a new person. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10)
{My own testimony} I grew up in a preacher’s home, and while I was blessed to have heard about God and the good news of His salvation each week, God still had to bring me to the realization that I had broken His commandments and that I stood guilty before Him. I had lied, stolen, disobeyed my parents, made idols in my heart by not having God as #1 in my life, coveted, etc. One night when I was heavily convicted by my sin and my need for a Savior, I cried out to God, repented of my sins, and asked Him to save me and be Lord of my life. A great weight lifted at that moment and I felt a peace that passes all understanding. And ever since then, my journey of learning about God, my Heavenly Father, and following Him has been so sweet and has grown deeper each day. That doesn’t mean I haven’t had any problems or trials, because I have had a few. But I can testify that God has been faithful through them all.
My prayer is that you will realize your need to be reconciled to God as well and accept His great gift of salvation! Hell is a very real place, and God doesn’t want anyone to go there. Neither do I!
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
“‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11)
“(God) desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
And when you give your life to Jesus, He promises to give you His Holy Spirit to dwell within you, and He will give you a new heart, and new desires. If you have received God’s great salvation, then you will WANT to follow the God who loved you enough that He died a cruel death to save YOU. The world tries to present many different ways for people to find peace and purpose in life, but there is only one way, and it is through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is only through giving our lives to Him that we can have true peace, joy, and a hope for the future.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Also check out this video! 👇🏻
sincerely-amanda.com 