How to Receive Eternal Life
2017-01-22
Do you want to be 100 percent sure, that if you died today, that you would go to heaven? Some fellow Christians I met recently showed me how to share the Gospel effectively, so I would like to share this with you.
Romans 3:23 tells us: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” God is the creator, and therefore the owner, of all things, and we were created for His pleasure. However, we have rejected God. We have sinned and rebelled against God, and we come short of His glory. The Bible also tells us that “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It is not just about the evil we have done. At the very heart of our being, we are sinful by nature.
Worse yet, Romans 6:23 tells us: “For the wages of sin is death.” At our regular day to day jobs, we receive wages in the form of a paycheck. Because we worked for our employer, we earned those wages. Likewise, by our sins, we earned death.
However, death is not the end. Revelation 20:14 tells us: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” A lake of fire is the second death. Furthermore, the Bible says that all sinners, including “all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). Every single person ever has told a lie before, so hellfire waits for everyone at the end of time. The worst part of hell is that it is forever.
However, God loves us. He does not want us to go to hell. His perfectness and holiness demands a penalty for our sin, which is eternal death, but His love for us demands a pardon. God knew of a way to judge our sin without judging us.
Romans 5:8 tells us: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who became a human being. Jesus was both God and man, and He came and lived a life on earth, and did so without sin. Because He was a threat to the political and religious leaders of the day, they lied about Him, tortured Him, and murdered Him by nailing Him to a cross. He was buried, and went to hell for three days and three nights, but on the third day, He rose from the dead. He died for our sins, and He was punished for our sins as if He had done them. The Bible tells us that He “bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
He died for everybody, but not everybody is going to heaven. What is the difference between those who go to heaven and those who go to hell?
Acts 16:30-31 tells us: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” It does not say that we have to turn from our sin, live a good life, be baptized and go to church and we would be saved. We must “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Believe means that we trust only Jesus, and not in our own works or something else to get to heaven.
John 3:16 tells us: “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.” Once again, is there anything about us living a good life or turning from sin? This tells us here that by believing on Jesus Christ, we receive eternal life. Furthermore, we read that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). When we believe on the Lord, we have everlasting life now, and everlasting means forever.
Let us return to Romans 6:23, where the whole verse reads: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Eternal life is a gift. You do not pay or work for a gift; the giver of the gift does. God paid for the gift of eternal life for us already by Jesus Christ dying on the cross and rising again. One other thing about a gift is that it is always yours. The giver of a gift does not take the gift away, ever. If he did, he would be a thief. That is the way it is with Jesus. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved forever. We must now walk in the eternal life we now have, forsaking our sin, but even if you sin again, you will have the gift of eternal life forever.
Do you believe you are a sinner?
Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?
If you trusted Jesus to save you right now, would He do it?
If God gives you eternal life, how long does it last?
If you believe that you are a condemned sinner, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead, you have eternal life. That means you have life that never ends, and you will never go to hell, ever.