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Introduction
This article contains truths which, if accepted, could change the whole direction of your life for the better. Therefore, please take time to consider these questions carefully as they tell you how you can know and enjoy forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and the assurance of a home in heaven after you die. This answers a number of questions and comments, some of which you may have been considering. If you are looking for God and take the action that is described, you will be forever grateful.
As there are number of questions about this subject we have selected the more important ones for this main page. If you think that there are other questions that you may wish to read then click on the links. There are also a few links to where you can read about the subjects in greater depth.
Guarantee
The Bible carries a guarantee with it. You’ll find it in John’ Gospel chapter (c)7 verse(v)17 where Jesus Christ said, “If any man will do his (God’s – v16 and 1 John c4v14) will, he shall know of the doctrine (teaching), whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” It’s a promise from God that anyone who sincerely wants to know the truth will find it. Put it to the test. Ask God to reveal Himself to you. Then as you read this article, give particular attention to the Bible verses that are quoted. If you respond to God’s message as found in His Word, you will have everlasting or eternal life.
1. What is the most important thing in life?
- It’s important to have health, but it’s not of maximum importance, because some time in the normal course of events we will all have to die.
- It’s important to have money and possessions, but they are not enough. Some day we will have to leave them all behind.
- It’s important to have pleasure, but the pleasures that this world offers don’t last forever.
In view of the shortness of time and the endless ages of our existence after death, called eternity, the most important thing is to know that our eternal destiny is safely assured in heaven and not go to hell. Jesus asked this crucial question, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark c8v36, 37)
2. But isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?
Do you really think that God:
- Who knows everything (Psalm 147v5 “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.”),
- Who loved us so much that He gave His unique Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take the punishment for our sins (see later),
- and Who realizes that what is at stake is the everlasting existence of people after death,
would inspire a book to be written that could be genuinely ridiculed by people? As God is true (1) and has inspired the Bible (2) there is nothing as certain as God’s word, the Bible. So the Bible does not have contradictions in it.
However as there are those who question God’s inspiration of the Bible and think that there are supposed contradictions in it please see the following link.
The Bible is made up of two “Testaments”. The Old Testament covers from the beginning of the world until before Christ. The New Testament covers from the life of Christ to future events.
If you wish to read more related questions please click here.
3. Why is there any problem? Don’t we all go to heaven anyway?
The problem is the wrong things that we have done, said and thought which God calls sin. Sin has: separated us from God, made us unfit for heaven and will bring us to the judgment of hell. The Bible says, ‘Your iniquities (self will or lawlessness) have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you” (Isaiah c59v2).
4. What is sin?
Sin is anything short of perfection. That is what God means when He says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory (or character) of God” (Romans c3v23). It is doing what God says we should not do (3). It is failing to do what God in His Word says we should do (4). It is self-will or lawlessness or living life my way and not God’s way (5). Not only are our words and deeds sinful, but our inner lives are sinful. In fact, what we are is a lot worse than anything we have ever done.
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5. If do the best I can, isn’t that good enough for God?
Have we always done the best we can? Have we always been fair to people, especially our family, and given them what we should? Have we never lied or cheated? In every employment have we always worked our hardest? If we are honest we will agree that we have not done the best we can and so we need God’s grace to be saved.
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6. What does “being saved by grace” mean?
- Grace is God showing favour to those who don’t deserve it, and who, in fact, deserve the opposite. It is closely linked with the idea of a gift. You do not pay for a gift. You receive a gift because it is freely given to you and say “thank you.” Grace and working for salvation cannot be mixed. It has to be one or the other (6).
- Grace must also be distinguished from justice. With justice you get what you deserve but with grace you get favour that you don’t deserve.
- God wants to save you from the consequences of your sin (7).
7. But I have been through various religious rituals and am even prepared to die for my religion. Is not that good enough?
When considered, all this is again people doing works to earn salvation. But, as shown before, our sin makes us and our good works unacceptable before God for salvation. This includes being christened in a church when you were a baby. There is not a single verse in the New Testament to support the baptism or christening of babies. Baptism saves no one, neither babies nor adults. The only people in the New Testament who were baptized were those who had already trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour (8). The teaching that baptism makes babies become part of the kingdom of God also makes God an unjust Judge, because:
- It condemns those who never had the chance to be baptized,
- It makes water the saviour instead of the Lord Jesus,
- If infants could be saved by a few drops of natural water, then why did the Lord Jesus have to die? Those that use natural water to seek to bring about spiritual results show that they do not understand the way God now deals with people.
Christening, and other like rituals, do not work. Many who were baptized as infants have turned out to be adulterers, murderers etc.
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8. To put it simply, what do I need in order to be saved?
You need to receive the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
- So that God could remain just and still forgive us He sent the Lord Jesus Who “came into the world to save sinners” (9). When Christ died, on the cross, for the sins of the whole world He took the judgment, or punishment, that our sins deserved (10). Therefore if you repent and believe that Christ took the judgment instead of you, then God can at that moment justly forgive you and save you from His judgment in hell (11).
- To receive everlasting life you have to be “born again”. Jesus said it briefly, “Marvel not that I said unto you, ‘You must be born again.’ ” (John’s Gospel c3v7). Unless a person is born again, they will never become a member of the kingdom of God nor enter heaven (12). To receive the gift of everlasting life, or the new birth, is something that God gives at the moment a person repents of their sins and trusts in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour (13). Your first birth was physical but the new birth is spiritual (14).
9. If I trust in Christ will I have peace with God?
Sin stops peace between us and God (see item 3 above) and between people and people. Romans c3v10 and 17 says about people generally, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” and “And the way of peace have they not known.” This is seen commonly throughout the world between nations, communities and family members. However so that the price could be paid to bring peace with God,
1 John c4v14 says, “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” Christ went to the cross and suffered, bled and died for your sins so as to remove them which are the cause of your lack of peace with God. He “made peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians c1v20) and so if you trust in Him as Lord and Saviour you will come into peace. “By faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans c5v1- emphasis mine). “He (Christ see v13) is our peace.” (Ephesians c2v14a).
10. What does it mean to trust or have faith or to believe?
They are words expressing the same thing. Faith is complete trust in someone or something. It is like sitting on a chair because you trust that it will hold your weight. Or it is like a drowning person who clings to a life raft because that is the only means of safety. It means accepting that the Lord Jesus Christ is your only hope for heaven. You finish with any idea of saving yourself or even having a part in your own salvation and you place your full confidence in Him. Acts c16v31 says “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house.”
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11. But why did Christ do all that for us?
Whether you realize it or not God loves you with a great love (15). Because of that love Christ was prepared to leave the glory and happiness of heaven, where He was worshipped and come to this world of sin and sorrow where, among other things, He was reviled and persecuted. Despite all this Jesus Christ was still the perfect revelation of God on the earth (16&17). He also suffered on the cross, died and rose again to save you. Romans c5v8 says “But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Galatians 2v20b says, “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Ephesians c5v2b says, “Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God …”
12. Don’t I have to clean up my life before I trust in the Lord Jesus?
That is not the gospel. The more you try, possibly the worse you will get. What you need is not reformation but regeneration i.e. a new life. The Lord Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One thief believed in Christ before he died on the cross but the other thief did not. The believing thief could not clean up his life and neither can you.
Jesus told about a man who tried to clean up his life. His house was cleaned and empty but he didn’t trust in the Saviour and so his latter end was worse than his first (18). A hymn says:
Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requires, is to know your need of Him.
Come, you weary, heavy-laden, lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.
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13. Is there a final judgment day?
- Yes. God’s Word says in Acts c17v30 “God … now commands all men (a general term that also includes women and children) every where to repent: Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.” One of the result’s of the Lord Jesus’ resurrection is that it assures us that He will be the earth’s final judge.
- Revelation c20v11-12 says concerning the end of time, “And I saw a great white throne, and him (the Lord Jesus see 19) that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. … And whosoever was not found written in the book of life (because they had not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour) was cast into the lake of fire.”
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14. What is heaven like?
Heaven is where God is (20). It is marked by fulness of joy (21) and where the believer in Christ will be received by God with exceeding joy (22). It is a place of fellowship (23&24) which will be far more wonderful than can be experienced on earth. This is partly because in heaven there will be no more: death nor sorrow nor crying nor any more pain (25) nor any more sin (26&27). So there will be no: cruelty, selfishness, loneliness, misunderstanding, perplexity or disappointments. There will be further revelations of God’s great truth and love (28) and the worship of God (29). Consequently the work there (30) will be fulfilling and happily done. The believers will then be “with Christ, which is far better” (31&32). As a result the believer in Christ does not fear death itself. This king of terrors becomes a servant to believers, as it will take them to a far better life.
15. Some people say that hell is one big party with your mates.
Hardly anything could be further from the truth. The Lord Jesus lifted the lid off hell in Luke c16v19-31 and the description includes: “send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame … remember in your lifetime … but now you are tormented … a great gulf fixed (between heaven and hell) so that no one can pass across it … send someone that he may testify to my brothers, lest they also come into this place of torment.” There is no mention of having any company, or of relief from the judgment or of God being unjust about those who go to hell. So if you are taking a casual approach to your eternal destiny, is that wise?
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16. I think I’ll put it off until later in life or until I die. Isn’t that all right?
You need to consider four things:
- The uncertainty of life (33).
- In the future you might not have the mental capacity to think.
- In the future you may have lost the desire to get right with God. As we previously mentioned there were two thieves that were crucified with the Lord Jesus. They both were going to die very soon yet one of them had no interest in getting right with God and so avoiding His everlasting judgment (34).
- The possibility of the any-moment coming of the Lord Jesus (35).
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17. All right then, please tell me once more, as simply as you can, how I can be saved and sure of it?
- First, you must acknowledge before God that you are a guilty, lost sinner and that you deserve eternal judgment.
- Also you must abandon any idea of saving yourself or even contributing in any way to your salvation by your view of good character or good works.
- You must repent which is turning away from your previous sinful life.
- You must realise that the Lord Jesus Christ loved you and died as a Substitute for you, paying the penalty that your sins deserved and rose again from the dead.
- Finally, by a definite act of faith, you must trust that He died for you to be your own, or personal, Lord and Saviour, and your only hope for heaven.
- When you do this in utter sincerity, you can know on the authority of God’s word that you are saved for time and for eternity.
- God’s promise is: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (meaning go to hell) but have everlasting life” (John’s Gospel c3v16).
- By repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus you have everything to gain and nothing of everlasting value to lose.
Will you repent and believe in Christ? Right now?
Bible References:
1. 2 Corinthians c1v18 “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yes and no.”
2. 2 Timothy c3v16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable …”
3. 1 John c5v17 “All unrighteousness (what is not right) is sin.”
4. James c4v17 “Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.”
5. Isaiah c53v6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way …”
6. Ephesians c2v8-9 “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man (a generic word to also include women, boys and girls) should boast.”
7. 2 Peter c3v9 “The Lord … is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
8. Acts c2v41 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
9. 1 Timothy c1v15 “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
10. 1 Corinthians c15v3-4 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
11. Acts c10v43 “To him (Jesus Christ – v38) bear all the prophets witness, that through his name every one that believes on him shall receive remission of sins.”
12. John’s Gospel c3v5 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
13. John’s Gospel c3v36 “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”
14. Romans c6v23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
15. Ephesians c2v4-5a “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead* in sins.” (*spiritually)
16. John’s Gospel c14v9 “Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father (that is God the Father); and how say you then, Shew us the Father?”
17. John’s Gospel c8v29 “And he that sent me (Jesus – v28) is with me: the Father has not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”
18. Matthew c12v43-45 “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
19. John’s Gospel c5v22 “For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son.”
20. 1 Peter c3v22 “Who (Jesus Christ – v22) is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”
21. Psalm 16v11 “You (the Lord – v8) will shew me the path of life: in your presence is fulness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
22. Jude 1v24 “Now unto him (God – v25) that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
23. 1 Thessalonians c2v19 “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?”
24. 1 Thessalonians c4v17 “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
25. Revelation c21v4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
26. 1 Corinthians c15v52-53 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
27. Revelation c21v27 “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie:”
28. Ephesians c2v7 “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
29. Revelation c4v10 “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that lives for ever and ever …”
30. Revelation c22v3 “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:”
31. John’s Gospel c14v2-3 “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
32. Philippians c1v23 “For I am in a strait betwixt two (or I am hard pressed between the two), having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”
33. Proverbs c27v1 “Boast not yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth.”
34. Hebrews c6v2 “Of the doctrine … of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
35. 1 Thessalonians c4v16-17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we (believers in the Lord Jesus – v14) which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
With grateful acknowledgements to “That’s a Good Question” by William MacDonald, a lot of whose contents have been included by permission.