We make a lot of assumptions. We assume our car will start when we turn on the ignition. We assume we'll land a job after graduating from college or grad school. We assume we'll go to Heaven when we die. If we are wise, we make an active effort to back up these assumptions. For example, we research reliable cars before buying them and make sure not to leave the headlights on. We work diligently in school to make ourselves marketable when we send out our resumes. But how do we back up our assumption that we'll go to Heaven when we die?
Society, i.e. via TV and movies, and even some religions teach us that good people go to heaven and bad people don't. Plus, we live in a world that rewards good, so we figure the same rules apply beyond this world. For example, we believe that if we're good in this life, we'll be rewarded with Heaven in the next. But this assumption is flawed for many reasons:
1) Society, religion, etc. aren't always right. (You're probably thinking DUH) Our eternal destiny is too important to leave up to the uncertainty of our assumptions. So rather than making more assumptions, we ought to start asking questions like
1) "Am I going to heaven when I die?"
Question #3: "Who can I trust for the answers to these questions?" These questions all address an issue that transcends this world. So the answers should come from someone who also transcends this world. That someone should also be all-knowing, all-powerful, and at the same time care enough about us to answer these questions in the first place. The only one that meets all these qualifications is God.
Question #2: "How do I get to Heaven?" Now that we know who has the answers (God), how do we get the answer from him? I mean, it's not like God speaks in an audible voice right? Wrong actually. I personally know individuals who've literally heard the voice of God loud and clear, and the Bible explicitly records numerous instances of this. But the vast majority of the time, God communicates with us in writing—through the Bible. It's in the pages of the Bible that God has given us the answer. There are many places to start, but let's we start with the bad news first. That way we can appreciate the good news even more.
The Bible says, "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). So no matter how "good" we think we are by being nice or through our good deeds or in comparing ourselves to criminals, we're all still seen as sinners in the eyes of a perfectly holy God (Jeremiah 2:22, Isaiah 6:3). Given that God is perfectly holy and we are far from, it shouldn't surprise us that his standard of goodness is a lot higher than ours, for he declares "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways" (Isaiah 55:9). In fact he is so holy he cannot even allow sin into his presence: "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong" (Habakkuk 1:13). This means we cannot enter into God's presence because of our sin. In other words, we can't go to Heaven the way we are. Where does this leave us then?
The answer is startling, for there is only one other eternal place other than Heaven. The Bible states, "For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23), "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Romans 20:15), where "death" and "the lake of fire" are both references to Hell. It's here where people, who because of their sin, "...will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). So while most of us assume we will automatically go to Heaven, the exact opposite is true. In other words, our default destination is actually not Heaven, but Hell! But why Hell? Isn't that a little harsh? The Bible tells us that Hell was not created for man, but rather for the original enemies of God, i.e. Satan (Matthew 25:41). It was when the first man sinned that punishment was brought upon the human race as well (Romans 5:12-21), for God is a God of justice (Psalm 33:5, Isaiah 30:18), who must require punishment for sin. But, it's finally time for the good news!
God is also a God of love, who is "not wishing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9), but rather "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." In fact, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "...the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). "He [Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins and then was raised to life to put us right with God. By faith in this, then, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand" (Romans 4:25-5:2).
This is jaw-dropping. Let's hear that again... God, you who are bigger than the universe, knowing the punishment we deserve, freely provided your own payment for our sins by sending your only son Jesus out of the comfort of Heaven to dwell among us here on earth, teach us, feel our pain, and die an excruciating death by crucifixion in our place—all so that our sins would be forgiven? And then on top of that, you raised him from the dead and back into Heaven—all so that we'd be able to spend eternity with you in Heaven?! How much God must love and care for us that He did all that!
We are now then confronted with a choice—to believe and receive this priceless gift from God, or reject it and face eternity in Hell, separated from God. The obvious choice would be to believe. But to truly believe means more than to passively acknowledge the facts of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. Rather, it means actively following him and trusting in him instead of ourselves.
Jesus instructed us, "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14). If in faith we turn toward Jesus, then at the same time we must naturally be turning away from something else, and that something else is sin. This turning away from sin is called repentance, and it goes hand and hand with faith as God's requirement for our admission into Heaven: "[God is] not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
Finally, we must trust in Jesus as the ONLY way to heaven, and not as just one of several ways to get there. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
So instead of taking any more chances in assuming you'll go to heaven when you die, you can pray something like this: "God, I now know that I'm a sinner, and because of that, my default destination is Hell, not Heaven. But I also know that you want me to be with you in Heaven, so much so that you made a way for me to get there through your son Jesus. I believe that you sent Jesus to die for me in order to forgive my sins. From now on, I trust in Jesus as the only way to Heaven, and I turn to him now by turning away from my sins."
Finally, Question #1 should be easy now: "Am I going to heaven when I die?" If you prayed the prayer above and meant it from your heart, then YES! Click HERE for the next step.
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