Can I really be sure I am going to Heaven when I die?
That’s a question the most of us never even stop and give much thought to until we are confronted with some kind of crisis, either medical, physical (old age), an accident of some kind, or some kind of threating situation, either in our own life or somebody else’s life. It is during those times that we think about the people in our life we are going be leaving behind, and where we going to end up at that final moment, when we close our eyes for the very last time and take our last breath. I can remember a time before I became a Christian that I would find myself wondering when I would see people on my job who just seem so confident, they were going to make it into heaven when they die and I would often wonder in the back of my mind, how can they be so sure of themselves? Did God actually say a person can know for sure they are going to Heaven, or was that something they were just feeling about themselves based on the good being more than the bad in their life, and what they felt in their heart God thought about them? Can a person really know for sure? That’s what I would think about at times. Here’s an even deeper question I had to ask myself at those times? Do I even really want to know? If you find yourself wanting to know the answer to those kinds of questions beloveth,.. it’s because God is at work in your heart.
Most of us, at one time or another have wanted to work for a particular company or get into a particular school or college, and one thing we could never do is presume we know what the qualifications are for getting into those places without doing some background work by checking to find out from them what’s necessary to get in. We gather information from those sources about what’s necessary because we want to be sure we know what we are talking about, or that what we are thinking to be true is actually true. That way we not basing what we believe on what we feel, but on what we know. What we end up finding out is there is some sort of requirements or some sort of process that you have go through, whether that is interviews, resumes, or testing for certain qualifications, among other things. What we also end up finding out is that everybody, without exception, has to go through that process. If you simply showed up at company or at that college on the first day of class without ever going through the process to get in, thinking they are going to let you in solely on the basis of what you felt was necessary to get in, you would be setting yourself up for a very disappointing day. They simply are not going to change their rules for you simply because you were wrong about what was necessary to get in, especially since you had every opportunity to find out what was necessary but you simply chose to trust what you felt in your heart what they were going to think of you, rather than check their policies and procedures so you would know for sure what the requirements are.
Beloveth, this is what people think they can do with God. Without ever listening to God’s thoughts about how to get into Heaven, without ever looking at what God has said in the Scriptures about what He says is necessary to get into Heaven, people presume they know, not based on what God has actually said about getting in, but based solely, on what they personally feel, God will accept. Let me be first in raise my hand here and admit that I personally made that mistake, right up to the age of 22. I want to pause here for a minute to say this,..”there is not a bigger mistake you could ever make in your entire life,. that would be bigger than that mistake,” if that is what you are doing. So, Iet me right now plead with you, on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.., “don’t make that mistake”. Yes, you can be sure you are going to Heaven when you pass from this life, if you are basing what you believe, on what God has actually said. God honors His word. God is under no obligation whatsoever to honor what we feel is right or what we feel is necessary to get into Heaven,.. unless what we believe is what He has actually said. I had to come to grips with that one day, .and here’s what i discovered God actually said. There is one way,. and only one way,.. to get to Heaven and that is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what the Lord says to someone in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, and verse 6,
“ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life… No one comes to the Father except through Me…..( John 14:6)
So, that blows away any ideal whatsoever that there are many ways to get to God, or that there are many religions that lead to God in Heaven like we hear today. No, absolutely no,. the Lord Jesus Christ said,.. that’s not true… There’s one way to get into Heaven and only one way,.. and that is through Jesus Christ… “No one comes to the Father except through Me”…..( John 14:6).
In another passage in the same book (John 17: 1-2),..says the same thing and it also shows us why no one can get to the Father in Heaven except through Him. Here, Jesus Christ is praying to God the Father as He prepared to give His life for the sins of the world,.. and He says this,
“ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh,” that He should give eternal life”,. to as many as You have given Him…(John 17:1-2)
Beloveth, what God wants everyone of us to see here is that,.. the “eternal life”.. we all want with God in Heaven,. is something that’s given,.. and one who gives it,. is the Lord Jesus Christ”. There is no other person of any other religion,..that can give you eternal life. There is no deed you might do that can earn it for you. Eternal life,. is given beloveth. It is absolutely crucial, that everyone of us sees that the only one who can give eternal life to us,.. is Jesus Christ. He has been given authority, over all flesh. That means all of us. Now if you are like me, I had another question here,. because I am looking at what Jesus prayed in that prayer to God the Father that we just read in (John 17:2), where He said,
“as You have given Him authority over all flesh,.” that He should give eternal life”,. to as many as You have given Him”.
So, in my mind,.. right about now,.. I am thinking, well then who are those that God the Father has given to Jesus Christ His Son because it’s those people that Jesus said He gives eternal life to. That has to be everybody’s question that wants Heaven to be there home when they die. Beloveth,.. Jesus Christ answers that question for us in…in (John 6:37), He says,
“ All that the Father gives Me,. will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me,.. I will by no means cast out…(John 6:37)
There it is… Did you see that beloved? “All those that God the Father gives to His Son Jesus Christ,. will come to Him”,.. and those who come to Jesus Christ.., are the ones that He gives eternal life to. Some may come early in life,. some in midlife,. some later in life, and some at the very end of their life. Whenever it is that they come to Him, Jesus wants them to know this, “and the one who comes to Me,.. I will by no means cast out…(John 6:37)
I want to pause here for a minute and look at one passage, because what I want you to see is this,. “to hear what Jesus Christ says,… is to hear what the Father in heaven Himself has said”. That is what he Scriptures tell us in Hebrews, chapter 11, and verses 1-2,.. it says this;
“God., after He spoke long ago to the fathers,.. in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us,.. in His Son,.. whom He appointed heir of all things,…. through whom also He made the world….(Hebrews 1:1-2)
God, the Scriptures said,. has spoken to us,.” in His Son”,..the Lord Jesus Christ,. And because it is God that has spoken to us,. in His Son,. to not listen to His Son beloveth,.. is to not listen to God the Father Himself.
Let me go back a minute and just share with you something else I wondered about that Jesus said in that.. (John 6:37) passage that we looked at, and that is this, “how does God get people to come to Jesus Christ? I ask that because of what Jesus says here in ..(John:6:37)
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me,.. I will by no means cast out…(John 6:37)
Jesus answers that question in several passages. First, in (John 6:44) Jesus says something that startled those who heard it when He said this,..
No one can come to Me,.. unless the Father who sent Me,. “draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day ….(John 6:44)
Let me pause here just for a minute before I go on,. and think about this. Jesus said God the Father draws people to Him. Now the next question is, ‘How does the Father draw people to Jesus Christ”? God answers the question in in the next verse ..(John 6:45),
It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard,.. and learned from the Father,.. comes to Me….( John 6:45)
Here Jesus said those that come to Him have been taught by God,..” And they shall all be taught by God”. And He doesn’t stop there, but He goes on to say this,..
Therefore everyone who has heard,.. and learned from the Father,.. comes to Me….( John 6:45)
Now, when I stop a minute and think about all this that Jesus Christ said, when I put it all together, this is what Jesus Christ is saying,..He said He gives eternal life.. to those who come to Him,..and those who come to Him,.they come to Him,.. because they have been drawn to Him by God the Father, .and the Father draws then to Him by what they have heard and learned from the Father…..” And they shall all be taught by God”… is what Jesus said.
So, now my final question is this, “what does God the Father teach people that draws them to Jesus Christ so Jesus can give them eternal life”?
Beloved there are at least four things that those who come to Jesus Christ have learned from God the Father, and God teaches them, “in the order that each individual person needs to learn them. First, and most importantly, is that this Jesus Christ that you have been hearing about from people God has sovereignly bought into your life, is Lord of the entire Universe. God grants the ability to see,.. what you otherwise would never be able to see, “Jesus Christ is Lord” and the Savior of the world. Look at what the Scriptures said in …..(2 Corinthians 4:6)
“For it is the God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness,.. who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ..( 2 Corinthians 4:6)
Just as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness when He created the world, God commands light to shine in the darkness of the hearts of people to show them who Jesus Christ is,..the Lord of the entire Universe,. the God of Creation, and the Savior of the world, so they will come to Jesus Christ for eternal life.
In Matthew, chapter 16, where Jesus ask His disciples who do people believed He really is? Then after listening to their answers,..He follows that question up with another question, directed at His disciples about who they themselves say He is in verse 15-17,
“ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,.. but My Father who is in heaven….. (Matthew 16:15-17)
Then there’s a second thing that those who come to Jesus Christ have learned from God the Father and that is this, “every single one of us is a sinner in the sight of God”, Those the Father have drawn to His Son have realized that in their heart and will willingly confess that before God.
For there is not a just man on earth who does good,..And does not sin.. (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
God said He looks from heaven upon every human being on the face of the earth in every generation, and God wrote about what God He saw in the Scriptures,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…( Romans 3:23)
We don’t have to look any further than God’s first commandment to see that everyone of us is a guilty sinner. “You shall have no other god before Me” the Lord says. The god we all have that we all put before God in our lives, is ourselves, and every one of us, regardless of who we have broken that first commandment. Beloved, it is God the Father that convicts us of the eternal consequences of that great sin so they will come to Jesus Christ.
All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; .. .. (Isaiah 53:6)
Then there’s a third thing that God the Father has taught those who come to His Son Jesus Christ and that is this,. “their own righteousness before God is as filthy rags before Him”, and will not get them into heaven, because they do not have a day by day, minute by minute, thought by thought, completely perfect life lived under His rule to present before God. Nobody, except for Jesus Christ has ever had that type of life before God. Therefore God, works in the heart by His Spirit to convict those who come to Jesus Christ of their sinful condition, of the own righteousness that falls desperately short of His righteousness. They then begin to realize in their heart that there’s nothing can do to change that themselves and look to God for mercy.
“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags….( Isaiah 64:6)
“ As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;.. (Romans 3:10)
God the Father has taught those who come to Jesus that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Creator of the entire universe. God the Father has taught those who come to Jesus Christ that they are a sinner in His sight in spite of what they have thought about themselves in their hearts. God the Father has taught those who come to Jesus Christ that their own righteousness before Him is as filthy rags because nobody has a perfectly lived life under His rule to present before Him as His Son Jesus Christ has. God the Father teaches us them do not trust your own righteousness. It is not sufficient to get into heaven. God working in their heart warns them of that fact by His Spirit. Jesus talks about God’s Spirit working in the hearts people in the world.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin,.. and of righteousness,.. and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged……( John 16:7-11)
Then there’s a fourth thing the Father teaches those that He draws to Jesus Christ and that is this,” “there is a day of judgment coming for every one of us”. A day in which each one of us, both believers in Jesus Christ and those who chose not to trust Jesus Christ as their lord during their lifetime will be resurrected from the dead to give account of themselves to God. Jesus refers to that day in the passage we just read as the last work of the Spirit of God in the heart of men. This is what Jesus is referring to in the last past of this verse in (John 16:8).
And when He (the Holy Spirit of God), has come, He will convict the world of sin,.. and of righteousness,.. and of judgment:
Every one of us will appear before the Lord Jesus Christ one day to be judged by Him.
“ For it is written:“As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God…( Romans 14:11-12)
That coming resurrection is also referred to by the apostle Paul in,.. (Acts 24:15-16). He says,
“I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men……(Acts 24:15-16)
These two resurrections are at least a thousand years apart from each other. I will talk more about them in future blog post. Beloved,.. because God so loves us, in His mercy He put’s the fear of that coming judgement in the hearts of those who come to Jesus Christ and God teaches them of the reality of that coming resurrection day judgement, to draw them to the only one that can forgive us of our sin against a Holy God,.. while we are still here alive on earth, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins…”(Mark 2:5-10)
“ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”…..( Acts 4:12)
Therefore the Father convict us of the need to go to His Son, whom He sent into this world to be a sacrifice for our sins on that cross, so you and I can live eternally with Him in that heavenly city with all who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ while they lived on this earth. Here’s what the Lord Jesus Christ says to every one of them that come to Him who have been drawn to Him by God the Father,
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”……( John 6:37-40)
“ Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life….( John 6:47)
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”…(John 10:27-30)
I understand now why those people I used to work with before I became a Christian, were so confident that they were going to heaven when they die and it’s the reason, I am confident today that I am going to Heaven when I died. My faith in Jesus Christ is not based what on what I feel, or things I did, but on who Jesus Christ is in my life, Lord, and what He has done in giving His life on that cross for me.
Beloved,. You might be wondering right now in your heart thinking, do I really know if I died today, that I am going to Heaven? If you were told by your doctor, you probably won’t make it through the night because there’s nothing else, they can do for you, do you know when you close your eyes for the last time that you will go into the presence of God? You don’t have to wonder about that beloved. You can be sure about it when you place all your faith to get there in the one God the Father sent into the world to get you there,..the Lord Jesus Christ. When you are willing to come to the Lord Jesus Christ because you know what you are, a sinner in the sight of God who does not have a perfect life to present to God,.and you are willing to ask the Lord to forgive you, and willingly allowed Him His rightful place as Lord in your life. If that is indeed what you want, go to the “Encouragement” menu and look in the “Prayers page for the “Prayer to receive Jesus Christ. Beloved it is those who are willing receive Him that God gives this word of assurance to,
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God….(1 John 5:11-13)
Beloved, yes you can know for sure you are going to heaven, but only if what you believe is based on what God, has actually said.