Eternal Destiny

A Long Story Short

Here is a question for you: Who is the one person who knew they were going to Heaven before they died? You may think you know the answer: the thief on the cross who asked Jesus to remember him when He entered into His kingdom. But, that’s not altogether correct because the wording of the question is a bit off. Yes, the thief knew, but there have been many who knew their eternal destiny was Heaven, and they were not self-deceived as so many others are. Like the thief on the cross, you too can know for sure that you are going to Heaven when you die. The choice is yours, and I exhort you to choose today. You are invited by God, but an RSVP to Him is required, as Heaven is no one’s default destiny.

No one gets into Heaven by being religious or through their own merit. This is because there is a barrier between God and us, and that barrier is our sin. Our sin separates us from God; and no matter how much good we do, no matter how religious we may be, we cannot take away our own sins. Nor can priests for that matter. Only God has the authority to forgive sin.

God is quite angry at our sin and is in no way overlooking it. God is Holy and righteous and cannot waive the penalty which is due us for our sins. That penalty is being sent into hell fire for all of eternity after we have died with no chance of parole. That is the just judgment of God toward us for our own sin. There is no way around this truth. God must punish sin - period.

Fortunately, God loves us. He is not just a raging Deity bent on vengeance and our destruction. He is Holy and righteous, but He is also compassionate and has a heart ready for forgiveness. God does not want to have to send anyone to hell. So He chose to do something about this sin problem for us. God offers us, even today, a gift for the asking. The gift is eternal life. We are not justified in God’s eyes by our good deeds or being faithful in our religions: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). God sent His Son, Jesus, into this world so that He would take upon Himself the responsibility for our sins. We are His own wayward creation, and He willingly accepted death at the hands of men to offer Himself as an atoning sacrifice to God for our sin. It is this sacrifice of God’s only Son that takes away our sins. God’s gift is undeserved mercy, forgiveness of our sins, and an inheritance in Heaven that we never could have earned on our own. This is the gift that is offered to us, and all we have to do is ask for it. We will see how in a bit.

To think that we have lived good enough lives to merit a position in Heaven or to identify ourselves and our salvation with a religion or religious denomination equates to rejecting and bypassing what God did for us through Christ to take away our sins. Good things are what we are supposed to do. But taking away our sin was the responsibility that God the Father laid on His Son, Jesus. Imagine the love God has for you to have offered His Son as a sacrifice – a willing death on the part of Jesus to take away your sin, my sin, and that of the whole world. It is the combination of our sin and our rejection of the need for Christ’s substitutionary blood atonement that sends people to hell, even people we would call “good.”

The gift is there for the taking. To receive, we do the following:

Admit that you are a sinner, knowing that the wages of sin is eternal damnation. Here are a few examples of sin: partying with drugs or getting drunk, having (or even thinking about) sexual relations with someone other than your spouse, getting pregnant outside of marriage, having an abortion, living with someone without being married to them, lusting after someone (which Jesus equates with adultery because it takes place in the heart), unjust anger toward someone (which Jesus equates with murder. Again, it takes place in the heart), hatred, lying about someone else, gossiping or inciting harsh feelings in others toward someone else, taking the Lord's name in vain (like saying G.D. in anger or J.C. in an irreverent manner), dishonoring our parents, stealing (which would include cheating on taxes!), and covetousness (a jealous yearning for what others have). Sin encompasses what many do on a regular basis. It’s in our nature, so we are all guilty of sin: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). "Behold, all souls are Mine;The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4). That is why the Lord has every right to regard each and every one of us as disobedient sinners deserving His eternal judgment.

Believe that God loved us enough to do something about this sin problem for us to spare us judgment and sentencing to an eternity in hell fire. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on 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” (John 3:16-17). God did this through Jesus’ willful death - paying the debt of our sin through His vicarious sacrifice – shedding His blood on a Roman cross, dying in the place of us sinners. Believe that when Jesus died, He cleaned your slate of all of your sin - past, present and future. Gone! Our debt to God was paid for us by Jesus, the innocent Messiah dying for the guilty.

Believe that Jesus is the only Son of God, anointed and appointed from before the foundation of the world to take away our sins. Trust in Jesus and in Jesus alone to present you to the Father as holy, without blemish, and above accusation in His own sight.

First let’s get clear on who Jesus is. Jesus is God’s only Son. This makes Jesus equal with God, God the Son:

“He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 2:15a).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, italics added).
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Now with that said, what did Jesus actually do for us when He was dying on the cross?

“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).
“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard” (Colossians 1:21-23a).

Jesus is to be the object of our faith, as He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). Jesus broke the one barrier between God and us which is our sin. Man is not linked to God through his religious affiliation and devotion, but rather God reconciled His own wayward creation back to Himself through Christ. It is Jesus who links God with man; man cannot link himself to God, and that includes his attempts through religion and good deeds: “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). Grace is on the part of God. It is undeserved favor. Faith is our part. But be clear in whom your faith is to lie. The object of our faith is not a “what” (religion and a good honest lifestyle), but a “who,” and that who is Jesus, and Jesus alone. That is why Jesus closed that verse above with, “no man comes to the Father but by Me.”

Know that Jesus was raised back to life on the 3rd day after his crucifixion, as He foretold: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth“ (Matthew 12:40). And having never sinned, and having conquered sin for us, sin held no claim on Jesus, and God the Father gave Jesus the authority to take His life back. He rose! He blazed the trail to eternal life for those who choose to follow Him now in this lifetime.

Be willing to turn away from your sins, forsaking them completely – and do it. Repentance is the English translation of the Greek word metanoia - to change the mind, in this case regarding sin. Repentance is to accept the will of God in our inner selves instead of rejecting it. This new lifestyle is based on the new covenant that God has made with man through His Son Jesus the Christ. We must learn to walk in the ways of the Lord and turn our backs on the ways of the world. You can learn how Jesus meant for us to live by reading the New Testament of the Bible. Start in The Gospel of Matthew reading a little bit every day and move on to the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John and continue until you get to the end of the Bible. Do this a few times before going back into the Old Testament. We have to become very, very familiar with God’s New Testament doctrine so when some tele-evangelist or preacher or figure teaches something incorrect, we’ll know it and avoid their teachings and them like the plague.

Holy Scripture was authored by God. It is the Word of the Lord. But man has a way of adding to it his own precepts or taking away from it. God in no way condones this. Be assured, those who teach others the precepts of men and pass it off as scriptural doctrine are leading people astray – even to hell. Be aware of the dangers lying right in the teachings of our religious denominations.

I therefore exhort you to join a full-Bible believing church and be very, very careful on this choice. All that is taught is not necessarily truth. Jesus tells us to leave the false teachers behind and not to become their followers, saying, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14).

If you want to receive the gift of God, and you are ready and willing to turn your back on the ways of the world and walk in the ways of the Lord, just ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins - right now. He promised He would never turn anyone away, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." and "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."

Our end of the deal is to ask for the Lord's forgiveness for our sins – and be specific about them. Then, trust and obey Jesus: Obey Jesus as your Lord and trust Him as your Savior. If you can believe and trust God's promise to you of your eternal salvation, then you have chosen to receive Jesus as God's only Son, your Lord and Savior. That is the RSVP spoken of earlier. Eternal life is God's gift to us. It is God's love for you that drove Christ to willingly accept crucifixion. Now that's a God you can trust!!! Trust in Him and obey His teachings all the rest of the days of your life. This is the Gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ.

If you want to know more, go to the top of this page and click on "Lesson One" and then read through the remaining lessons in the order they are presented. They give more detail, but the overall message has been presented here in summary.