Do you ever browse the obituaries in your local newspaper. Just imagine if your obituary was published next week. Would your immortal soul go to Heaven, or Hell? Are you truly prepared for Judgment Day?
The Bible declares, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). But just how “saintly” must a person be in order to make it into Heaven? How “good” is good enough?
Thankfully, the gift of everlasting life in Heaven is just that — a gift from God! While following Christ often involves rejection, adversity and various difficulties, receiving Jesus as your Savior and being forgiven of your sins is easy! The Savior paid in full the agonizing penalty for our sins on the cross so that we could freely receive the eternal benefits of His loving sacrifice.
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If our entrance into Heaven depended upon our saintly behavior, we would never make it into Paradise. Our sins had separated us so far from God that only the sacrificial death of the sinless Messiah could bridge the gap and bring us into an eternal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Would you like to know for sure that Heaven is your eternal home? If so, then simply choose to stop relying upon your pious behavior in hopes of earning your way into Heaven. Instead, rely completely upon the atonement Jesus completed for you on the cross. You see, believers are forgiven only because of the Savior’s perfect sacrifice.
Other religions teach people to “DO this” or “DO that” to get into Heaven, whereas followers of Christ rely upon what Jesus has DONE for us on the cross. Faith in Christ alone is the only way to make it into Heaven.
Paul instructed the “saints” in Ephesus: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Christians perform good works not in order to be saved, but because we have already been saved, redeemed, justified, born again and forgiven. The Bible reveals that Jesus “loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood” (Revelation 1:5).
One of these days your photo will appear in the obituary section of the newspaper. “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).
I need to ask you a critical question: Have you made preparations for your death? The Bible reveals that the only way to be adequately prepared to die and face your Creator is for your sins to be washed away through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as being “prepared to die” if Christ is left out of the equation.
You see, “This world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). Do you realize what this means? There is nothing to fall back on when the rug gets pulled out from under you. That is, unless you are a member of God’s family.
So, how does a person get into God’s family? Well, you must be born into it. Jesus told a religious leader named Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). When addressing “the saints in Ephesus,” Paul wrote, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:19).
Jesus described His relationship with His followers this way: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:10). So, do you know Jesus, or do you merely know about Him? Do you have a relationship with the Savior, or have you chosen to ignore the Lord’s love, grace and forgiveness which is only available at the cross?
“Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).
On the day your obituary appears in the paper, your immortal soul will have already entered either Heaven or Hell. Those are the only two destinations in eternity. I sincerely hope you meet the Savior before you take your final breath my friend.
So, where will you spend eternity? Jesus was sacrificed to pay for your sins so that you could know God and live with Him forever in Heaven. Do you want to live in Paradise, or would you prefer to remain outside of God’s family forever?
Hell is a horrific prison of eternal torment (see Luke 16:19-31). And yes, you and I deserve to go to Hell because we have broken God’s commands and sinned against the Lord’s holy and righteous Law. Nevertheless, God loves us dearly.
Multitudes of people assume their physical death is the end of their existence. They are clueless to what awaits them on the other side of the grave. Thankfully, “God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). You see, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
You would be extremely wise to immediately run into the arms of Jesus as you repent of your sins and believe that Christ was sacrificed for your eternal salvation. Don’t wait until it’s too late! After all, the day your obituary gets published may be sooner than you think.
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
