So what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when someone asks you one of these questions: “Do you know if you’re going to Heaven when you die?” or “Are you saved?” You’re probably thinking, “OMG get me out of here! I so don’t want to talk to this religious weirdo! I don’t need someone telling me I’m going to Hell” So you just say, “Yeah of course I’m going to Heaven when I die. I’m a good person.” And that right there is your biggest mistake. I know most people just want to brush the truth aside and live life their own way. But you NEED to read this! It’s a matter of life and death, literally. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just put aside Facebook or whatever aimless thing you’re doing right now and take a few minutes to read this and it will change your life forever.
So I’d just like to start off by telling you that you need to keep an open mind about this. Just keep reading and don’t be offended by anything I say. Sometimes the truth hurts. If you’re like most people, you’ve been lied to your whole life. This message is ingrained in all our minds: If you’re a good person you’ll go to Heaven and if you’re a bad person you’ll go to Hell. Right? We’ve been taught this our whole life. Well I’m here to tell you that message couldn’t be more wrong! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying go out and do every bad thing you can think of because there aren’t any repercussions, because that’s not the case. What I’m saying is there is absolutely NO way for you to get to Heaven on your own. You can’t be your own savior.
“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.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)
It’s not going happen. Sorry. The ONLY way to get to Heaven is if you’re perfect. And last I checked no one’s perfect.
“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.” (Psalms 5:4)
“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoeverworketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27)
When you die, God doesn’t put all your good and bad deeds on a scale to determine where to place you. Do you think if there’s more good you go to Heaven and if there’s more bad you go to Hell? All it takes is ONE sin to go to Hell, just one. That’s all it takes. And EVERYONE has sinned at least once. That means none of us can get to Heaven on our own, even though we think we can.
So like I said before, you have to be PERFECT in order to get into Heaven. And none of us are perfect. One of the things people think they have to do in order to get to Heaven is to follow the Ten Commandments. Well even if you try as hard as you might, you’ll never be able to follow all of them forever. There is no possible way to follow them all and God knows that. That’s why he gave them to us; to show us that we were sinners and we need a savior.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23)
“As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:” (Romans 3:10)
He wanted us to realize that we were sinners and that we couldn’t get to Heaven on our own. He wanted us to turn to him for help. And he delivered. So how can we be saved?
That’s the big question. How do we become perfect? Do we have to confess our sins to a priest? Nope. It doesn’t do a thing. It might temporarily make you feel better, but your sins are still there. Okay then, what about getting baptized when you’re a baby? Nope. You just got a mini bath. You’re still going to sin. I’m sure there are tons of things you think you have to do to get to Heaven. There are a bunch of ceremonies you think you have to go through in order to get to heaven. What if you live alone on a deserted island for your entire life? Because you didn’t do any of those ceremonies, do you go to Hell? Of course not. There is only ONE way and ONE way only! Get that through your head! No ifs, ands, or buts. And if you don’t trust that one way, you WILL go to Hell.
“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die…” (Ezekiel 18:20)
“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:” (2 Thessalonians 1:8)
Alright alright already! How do you do it? How do you become perfect? How do you get to heaven?
Admit that you’re a sinner and trust that Jesus Christ, died on cross for YOUR sins, that’s the only way you will get to heaven.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47)
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Romans 5:1)
That’s it. Done.
Hold up! Wait! That’s it? No way. It can’t be that simple. No ceremony, no confessing your sins, no priest blessing you?
Yes! That’s exactly what I’m saying. And this all takes place in your mind. You don’t have to confess this to anyone. You don’t have to do anything special. You just have to make this decision in your head. It’s just between you and God. You can say it all you want but until you truly believe it in your mind, you’ll be on the path to Hell. But you have to trust it 100%. You can’t be 50% Jesus and 50% good works. You can’t even be 99% Jesus and 1% good works. Think of Jesus like a chair. When you sit in a chair, you trust it completely. You don’t imagine it’s going to just fall apart beneath you. You’re probably sitting in your chair right now, not thinking twice about it. You’re not hovering over the chair, pretending like you’re sitting on it but not really sitting on it. Half your butt isn’t on it and the other half is standing. No! You’re just sitting there not even thinking about. So why would you do that with Jesus? Why would you say you trust him to save you, but then you go and try to do a bunch of good works just in case. That’s not the trust that saves, is it?
Here’s another way to think of it. Imagine that everyone has a spiritual bank account for their sins. And the only way to get to Heaven is by having your sin bank account completely empty. How do we do that? Well there is no way we can empty the account by ourselves. That’s why Jesus came down from Heaven to pay for our sins. Did you get that? Pay for our sins! When we die, someone has to pay for our sin debt. And sinners go to Hell. And since we’re all sinners, we’d all go to Hell. So Jesus said, if you trust that I died on the cross to pay for YOUR sins and trust that I’m the only way, I will pay for your sins with MY LIFE BLOOD so you can go to Heaven when you die. So when you make that switch in your head and trust in Jesus alone, ALL those sins (past, present, and future) that were in your bank account instantly get stamped “PAID IN FULL” and put onto Jesus. Now you have a clear bank account, God now considers you righteous and Holy now. You’re looked upon as perfect in God’s eyes, like you have never sinned a day in your life. All of your future sins are also paid in full before you even commit them. You are saved in an instant and for ever and ever… ETERNAL LIFE GIVEN FREELY FROM GOD TO ANYONE WHO BELIEVES in JESUS!
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteous of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” (Philippians 3:9)
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10: 10,14)
I don’t know about you but I think that’s awesome!
Yeah yeah. Okay. That’s awesome. But that’s only temporary, right? Tomorrow when I lie to my parents about my grades my bank account is going to start filling up again. So now what? Do I need to do this mind switch multiple times, like a spring cleaning?
NO! This is the BEST PART! This deal is forever, eternal, everlasting, permanent! Once your bank account is cleared, it will never fill up again because all your sins were paid for when Jesus died on the cross. Past, present, and future sins are all paid for! That’s a pretty sweet deal, right? So now no matter what happens, you know 100% that you’re going to Heaven! You don’t have to think oh well yesterday I had about a 60% chance of going to heaven, but today I was better so now it’s up to 75%. That’s totally not necessary. The deal is sealed. There’s no changing it. ONCE YOUR SAVED YOUR ALWAYS SAVED because God Gift is ETERNAL LIFE, not temporary life or probationary life.
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37)
“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 know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:13)
Alright smarty pants. So now you’ve got me thinking. No matter what I do I’m not going to hell? No matter what sins I commit, I’m still going to heaven?
Yes.
So what’s the point of being a good person and following the rules? I can do whatever I want and have no consequences. I can sin all I want. And since doing good works wont get me to heaven, why should I even do them?
Getting saved isn’t like getting a free pass. It’s true, you can sin all you want and still go to heaven. But let me WARN YOU, you’ll get to heaven sooner than you thought, in fact ALOT quicker if you sin continually, than if you had followed the rules and been good. You’re considered God’s child now. And if you do wrong, you WILL be punished by God Himself. you are His child now and He WILL discipline you in His perfect way! Not always to the point of being killed, but you will be punished in some way and it will be painful. When you do good things God will bless and reward you here on earth and in heaven and when you do bad things God will take away rewards that he had planned on giving you here now and in heaven. I personally want lots of blessings and rewards here on earth AND later when I go home to heaven.
You were put on this earth for 2 reasons:
- To make the most important decision of your life; will you trust Jesus to be your savior or will you ignore God and His Son Jesus Christ. Some people choose to ignore or reject God plan of salvation while others accept it and thats called FREE WILL.
- Once saved, your greatest mission while on earth is to try and save others. Once you have found the key to salvation you need to show it others. If you don’t do that, why should God keep you on earth? God doesn’t want us to go to Hell. He really doesn’t. But He gave us free will, which means we have to make the decision ourselves. So when we’re saved, it’s our duty as God’s children to save others. And why wouldn’t you? I really dislike certain people, but I would never wish Hell upon them.
And here’s a bonus! When you save people and do good works, you’ll get rewards in heaven. When we’re saved, we get a home in heaven. And the things we do here on earth either fill up our home with great rewards or take away our rewards in Heaven. So there are major ETERNAL benefits to saving others and doing good works. You’re going to be in Heaven for an eternity. We might as well make it an enjoyable eternity!
Okay so this is all sounding pretty good. I don’t see any downsides. But why should I believe you? You’re just some person, just like me.
I get all my facts from the Bible. And the Bible has all the answers you’ll ever need. The Bible is 100% true.
Well the Bible was just written by men. There’s nothing special about it.
You’re right and wrong. The Bible was written by men but God told them EXACTLY WHAT to write! Every single word of the Bible is God’s word, not man’s. And God can’t lie, which means you can believe everything he says. Secondly the Bible is a very SPECIAL BOOK, it’s GODS WORD, don’t you want to know what your Creator has to say about things?
Well prove it. Give me proof that the Bible’s true.
Keep in mind that the Bible was written thousands of years ago. Here are just some of the things that we now know to be true that were written in the Bible long before they were ever proven to be fact:
- Empty place in the North (Job 26:7)
- Earth hung upon nothing (Job 26:7)
- The Earth is round (Isaiah 40:22)
- The waters are round (Proverbs 8:27)
- Einstein’s theory, E=MC2 (Jeremiah 10:12)
- Describes airplanes and jets (Joel 2:5, Ezekiel 38:9, Jeremiah 4:13)
- Effects of radiation (Zechariah 14:12)
- The stars “sing,” have a vocal quality (Job 38:7)
- The heavens are black (Isaiah 50:3)
- Air has weight (Job 28:25)
- The moon doesn’t have its own light (Job 25:5)
- The stars cannot be numbered (Jeremiah 33:22)
- The wind travels in circuits (Ecclesiastes 1:6)
- The ocean doesn’t overflow (Jeremiah 5:22)
- The earth has fire inside (Job 28:5)
- The earth has sides; not flat like a plate (Jeremiah 6:22)
- Earth rotates around the axle star (Job 38:31)
- Life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11)
Okay but I still have one more question. Why should I trust Jesus? He’s not God. He’s just God’s son.
But that’s the thing. He IS God. Jesus is every bit as powerful as God because He is God. God has three forms: God the Father would be like our soul, God the Son Jesus would be like our physical body, and God the Holy Spirit would be like our Spirit. And just like God, we also have three forms. We have our body, our soul, and our spirit. So you can see that we are created in His image. (3 in 1) It’s kind of like water which can take three forms but is always H2O water. Water can be ICE, Liquid water, or Steam Vapor. These are three very different forms but still the same H2O water!!! Three is a very important number with God and He has left His mark on the world. (Past, Present and Future — Length, Breadth and Height — Thought, Word and Deed — 3 notes are needed to make a musical cord — 3 primary colors, Jesus raised three people from the dead — the inscription above Jesus on the cross was written in 3 languages — Jesus ministry on earth was 3 years — Jesus rose from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights — Earth is the 3rd planet from the Sun — the number of petals on a flower is always a multiple of 3 — the atom is made up of 3 parts the proton, neutron and electron etc… I could go on and on and on but I think you got my point, God has put his stamp of the trinity on our earth!
This is a gift from God. It’s free! And who doesn’t like free stuff? And there’s no catch. We don’t have to sign our name in blood or go through a series of ceremonies that we might not complete. All you have to do is accept it. And because it’s a gift it can’t be taken away. It’s yours to keep forever. It’s that simple. Remember, you are saved and given Eternal Life by God the MOMENT you TRUST JESUS as your Savior and stop trying to be saved by your good works. You are TRUSTING to be saved, not trying to be saved… it’s a big difference! Now I’m going to give you a little sinner’s prayer. You don’t need to say it in order to get saved, but it’s just a nice way to wrap it all up.
Lord, I admit that I’m a sinner and I don’t understand the Bible very well, but I do believe that Jesus Christ died and paid for my sins in full by his death and shed blood on the cross. I trust right now that He died for me, was buried and rose again from the dead, and will live forever more. I trust Jesus Christ right now to save me, to be my Savior, to forgive my sins, and to give me the gift of eternal life.
So how are you feeling right now? Pretty good? Relieved? I really hope so. I hope I cleared everything up for you. If you’re still confused and have more questions or you have a few comments please use the contact form below. I’ll be sure to answer any of your questions! Thanks for reading and God bless!