You can know you’re going to Heaven

The Apostle John wrote in his first epistle (letter): “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (I John 5:13). You don’t have to hope you’re a Christian or that you’re going to Heaven; you can know it. Being a Christian isn’t about how you feel either; it’s an unchanging, knowable fact.

1. You Are A Sinner

We often casually say ”nobody’s perfect,” but this masks a far more serious truth. Each of us has sinned against a holy, righteous God. The Bible says; “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”(Romans 3:23). You might be a good person, maybe even better than I am, but that doesn’t change the fact that when measured against a perfect God, you fall short. If you’re honest, you can recall times when your conscience told you to behave a certain way, yet you chose to act differently. This, as the Bible calls it, is sin—deliberately choosing to do what we know is wrong or refusing to do what we know is right.

2. There Is A Penalty For Sin

Having acknowledged that we each have sinned against God, and fallen short of His standards, we come to a more terrible truth. God is righteous, and must punish sin. The punishment is death. Romans 6:23 says; “For the wages of sin is death”. The death spoken of here goes beyond just the end of physical life. Speaking again of the final judgment, the Bible says; “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14) This is not because God hates people and wants to torture them; as a matter of fact, describing that lake of fire, Jesus told us that it was “prepared for the devil and his angels”. God created the lake of fire to punish the devil, but He created mankind with immortal souls, and the only places that those souls can be for eternity are in Heaven (His home) or the lake of fire. When we choose to disobey what we know He wants, we disqualify ourselves from being able to go to Heaven. God is perfect, and He won’t let people who break His Having acknowledged that we each have sinned against God and fallen short of His standards, we must face a harsher truth. God is righteous and must punish sin. The punishment is death. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” The death mentioned here goes beyond just physical death. Referring again to the final judgment, the Bible states, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14) This is not because God hates people and wants to torment them; in fact, Jesus described that lake of fire as “prepared for the devil and his angels.” God created the lake of fire to punish the devil, but He created mankind with immortal souls, and the only places those souls can be for eternity are in Heaven (His home) or the lake of fire. When we choose to disobey what we know He wants, we disqualify ourselves from going to Heaven. Because God is perfect, He won’t allow people who break His rules—even occasionally—into Heaven, or it wouldn’t be perfect anymore. That leaves only the Lake of Fire for us because of our own choices.

3. There Is A Solution For Sin

Because God loves us, He did not leave us in a hopeless situation caused by our own sin, even though the cost to Him was great. Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” As a righteous God, He must punish sin, but that punishment destroys those He loves. The only solution was for someone else to accept the punishment for our sin. That way, sin would be properly punished, yet we could be saved. The problem is that since all of us sin, there is no person who could be punished for others’ sins because all of us have our own sins that deserve punishment. This was the reason Jesus was born. Only God could live a perfect, sinless life, and only a man could die for mankind’s sin, so God became a man. He lived as a man for thirty-three years, and then He was crucified, not because of anything He had done, but because He had always intended to die for our sins. The Apostle John called Him “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, He cannot exchange our account with God for His, so that God sees our sins on His account being paid, and His righteousness and access to Heaven on our behalf. The Apostle Paul explained it this way: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II Corinthians 5:21) Not only did Jesus die for our sins, but to show that He had broken the power of sin and its resulting death, He rose again after three days!

4. You Must Accept This Solution

Just as God did not force Adam to obey Him but allowed him to choose sin, God offers each of us the choice. We can choose to trust God and accept His salvation, or we can choose to reject Him and do things our own way. Jesus’ death and resurrection provide the opportunity for salvation, but no one is automatically saved by these; we must make a conscious choice. The Apostle Paul put it this way: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9,10,13) If you have never done so, I encourage you to acknowledge your sin and need for salvation, believe that Jesus paid the price for your sin with His death and demonstrated victory through His resurrection, and trusting Him, call on Him to be your Savior. If you would like to receive Christ as your Savior, please reach out to us anytime, and we would love to help you know that Jesus is your Savior and Heaven is your eternal home.