Going to Heaven?

Maybe you are an atheist, agnostic, Roman Catholic, or identify with one of the many other religions of the world. Maybe you have wondered if God even exists. Maybe you are curious how the primitive tribes of the world can know God. Maybe you have asked yourself, “If there is a God, how can He be all powerful, ever-present, and good when there is so much evil in the world?” Maybe you are skeptical about the Bible since there are so many translations and transliterations. Maybe you pondered how Christianity, out of all the other religions in the world, can be the only true religion. Maybe you think of yourself as a Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, or Presbyterian, but you know your life doesn’t please God. Maybe you’re not happy or you feel your life has no purpose. Maybe you are afraid of dying and going to hell. Regardless, you want to know what that Bible says about getting to heaven and escaping hell. We want to help you!

He is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, infinite, eternal, holy, just, loving, compassionate, gracious, and merciful, to name a few of His attributes. God created, preserves, and rules heaven and earth.

Through His Word, the Bible, which God supernaturally empowered men to write so we could know Him, His will for us, and His plans for the future.

He is near you right now. He hears your every word and knows your every thought. Be honest if you are not convinced God exists. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. God said to some who had wandered far from Him and who had been deceived by false prophets, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).” Seek the Lord with all your heart and in pages of the Bible, He will reveal Himself to you. He has promised and God can’t lie.

The Bible says, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Everyone has lied, coveted, lusted, hated, been selfish, etc. Everyone has failed to “love the God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength” and to “love their neighbor” (Luke 10:27). Because God is perfect, He requires perfect obedience from us. Because God is holy and just, He must punish every sin. The bad news is that we are all sinners and deserve to be judged by a holy God because of our sins. “The soul who sins will die (Ezekiel 18:4).” “The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).”

Jesus said to some self-righteous religious leaders of His day, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Jesus is the promised Messiah, Deliverer, Prophet, Savior, and King. Jesus is the Son of God, who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, and willingly died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin. He was buried, but three days later rose from the dead, proving that He had conquered sin and death. The good news is that Jesus the Messiah came into this world to save, rescue, and deliver sinners from the judgment they deserve because of their sin.

Jesus said to His disciples in John 14:3, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” Jesus is the only way a sinner can be forgiven of their sins, justified, and reconciled to God. You can’t make God like you. You can’t earn God’s favor. All your so-called “good deeds” are bad in God’s sight. You have to admit to God that you are a guilty sinner who deserves to be judged because of your sin and that you need Jesus to save you. You need to turn from your sin, and place your faith, trust, and hope in Jesus Christ alone to rescue you from His holy and just judgment. 

Below are some Scriptures that tell sinners this very thing. Read them and ask God to help you understand and respond to His Word.

“Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” 

“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

The Holy Spirit causes them to be born again, transforming them so that they are no longer the same. Old sinful habits and thoughts pass away. They feel a closeness to God, find themselves talking to God, and hungering to know the Bible better. They want to go to church, to be with God’s people, to serve, give, and obey Jesus in every way. If that does not describe you, beg Jesus Christ to save you by His grace. Keep reading the Scriptures above while pleading with Jesus to rescue you from eternal judgment.