Everyone ponders the question of Life After Death at some point. There is No One who will live upon this earth without coming to the place of facing death. The Scripture tells us the following.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
(Hebrews9:27-28)
It is not a question of IF you will pass from earth into eternity. It is only a matter of WHEN you will keep your God ordained appointment. Do you KNOW that when you face God’s judgement that He will welcome you into His eternal heaven? It is absolutely possible to know right now that His home will be your home. It is written.
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 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.”
(I John 5:11-13)
How then is one to acquire this eternal life so that there is no doubt that you will be accepted by God when your soul leaves this earth? The Scriptures tell us the following.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
(John 3:3)
Our nature is corrupt and cannot pass from this life to the next and stand in the presence of a Holy, Righteous, God. We are all separated from Him by something known as sin. It is written.
“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
(Isaiah 59:1-2)
The Apostle Paul wrote the following.
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”
(Romans 3:10)
Again, it is written.
“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. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 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: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
(Romans 3:20-23)
We are further told the following.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Romans 6:23)
Sin has brought the death penalty upon all who engage in it. To sin is defined as missing the mark of God’s holiness or to cross a line that God has forbidden us to cross through our actions. The Scriptures tell us that. Each of us stands before God condemned to pay the price for the sin which we have committed against Him. There is nothing we can do which will cause that sentence to be removed from us. We are, by nature, people who have rebelled against God and are in fact separated from Him because of our sin nature.
That is the basic meaning of death. It is to be separated from something. Physical death marks the separation of one’s soul from their body. Spiritual death is eternal separation from God in a place known as hell. That is known as the second death and Scripture plainly teaches that this is to be the abode of those who die physically without having the sentence incurred by sin pardoned. It is written.
“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
(Revelation 20:11-15)
How then are you to avoid such a fate? There is nothing which mankind can do to sufficiently pay our indebtedness to God. That is precisely why God has taken the initiative to provide a way, the only way, to satisfy His holiness and righteousness through the execution of Divine judgement. Jesus Christ came into the world of humanity and lived a perfect, sinless, life upon this earth which He then laid down as a substitute for you and I in order that God’s grace might be extended unto us. It is not by anything that we attempt to do or that we attempt to force God to accept that we will be granted eternal peace. It is by the grace of God provided through Jesus Christ alone that we can possess it. It is written.
” For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”
(I Peter 3:18)
To pay our debt, Jesus Christ died upon the cross, was buried, and three days later arose from the tomb just as He said He would do. He proved that He has the power over death and hell by doing so. He proved that He is everything which He claimed to be in the Scriptures. He and He alone has purchased the right to allow you and I to stand before the judgement of a holy God as though we had never sinned against Him through the extension of His grace unto us. That word, grace, means that a gift has been offered unto you which you did nothing to deserve and yet the giver freely presents it unto you for your taking with no payment due. This is what is meant in the Scriptures where it is written.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
(Ephesians 2:4-10)
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Take care to note that the way to eternal life is through the exercise of faith. Yet when we see that term faith two questions arise which we need to answer. The first of these is simply, what is this thing called faith? When the Scriptures speak of faith they are indicating total and unreserved trust. To have faith is to believe that the object of that trust will perform exactly as it has stated it would do.
The second question which arises is what is one to place their entire trust in for the purpose of possessing eternal life which God will grant unto you? Nowhere in God’s Scriptures can it be found that faith in religion, religious belief systems, or religious works have any worth when it comes to obtaining the salvation of God. It is written.
“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
(Matthew 7: 21-23
The “works” mentioned all look very pious at first glance but notice that none of these things mattered to The Lord at all. They are all seen as worthless by Him. Clearly the issue presented here is that they trusted things of man’s making when the matter at hand was not what one did, but rather who one knows. The terrible error made by these who will be cast away is that they placed their faith in the wrong thing.
Only faith which is placed in Jesus Christ to do what He says He will do for you on a personal basis is acceptable unto God to grant you pardon from sin. It is written.
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
(Acts 4:2-12)
When The Apostle Paul was asked by a jailer in the city of Philippi what he needed to do to be saved he was told the following.
” And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.”
(Acts 16:31-32)
It is further written.
“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:8-13)
To place your faith in Jesus Christ is to trust that He and He alone can deliver you unto God as His redeemed child who will stand before God spotless with your name found written in The Lamb’s Book of Life. We have seen how the Scriptures state that this is Christ’s desire. To allow this to happen you must believe that you are a sinner who cannot remove the curse of sin by anything you do, believe, or accept, which is built or designed by mankind. You must also accept in your heart as well as your mind the truth that Jesus Christ was crucified buried and arose from the tomb exactly as He said He would do to provide the ransom for your sin debt.
Note the passage above also states that confession of Him as Lord is involved. This is a call to repentance which means a turning away from all other authorities but Him and turning unto Him and Him alone as the master of your soul. For some this means turning away from false teaching. Others will need to turn away from idols. Yet others will need to turn from certain political ideologies and still more will find it necessary to turn from traditions of family and culture. Whatever stands between you and the surrender of your eternal destiny into the nail pierced hands of Jesus Christ must be repented of and turned away from in order that Jesus Christ holds the highest place in your life concerning spiritual matters of all natures.
Have you presented yourself unto Him in this manner? Should you not be able to say yes to that question I invite you to right now, wherever you are, invite Him to come into your life and save your soul. He stands ready to hear your cry and do what He has told you He will do. There are steps to do this which involve the following things.
- Admit unto Him you know that you are a sinner.
- Admit that you recognize that being a sinner carries a death sentence.
- Acknowledge that He died for you that you may receive a pardon from God.
- Ask for His forgiveness of all of your sins.
- Acknowledge that you repent of anything which stands between you and He.
- Ask that He come into your life and take control of it from this point forward.
I have found Jesus, The Christ of The Living God to be faithful and true over all the days of my life since I took these steps to invite Him into my life. I wish to encourage you to invite him in like this today, for we have no promise of awaking on this earth on the morrow.
Won’t you let Him come in this day?
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