THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. AND WE CAN KNOW FOR SURE WE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!
At some point in every person’s life, the thought of an Almighty God and the afterlife is a question that every individual eventually must think about. What happens after I die? Is heaven and hell real? Yes it is. Is the bible the truthful word of God? Yes, it is. How then, do I get to heaven?
God doesn’t want us to live in doubt about going to heaven as he told us we can know for sure while alive on earth. His word says in the Book of 1 John chapter 5:13:
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, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
God has told us in that one verse alone that those who believe on the name of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, will KNOW that they have eternal life. “Eternal life” means just that, something that lasts forever and cannot be forfeited or that would make God a liar!
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH AND ETERNAL DAMNATION IN HELL IS THE PUNISHMENT
But let’s back up a bit and explain the gospel in full. “Gospel” means “good news”. But first the bad news is that we are all sinners and it only takes one sin to send us to hell. Hell is a place of eternal damnation of fiery torment. Unfortunately Adam sinned and through him sin came into the world. The bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned
But most people naturally believe that they are a “good” person, and that if they live a decent life, God won’t send them to hell because they don’t deserve it based on their “good works”. Why would God send me to hell? I never did anything terribly wrong? Doesn’t my good outweigh my bad? Well, God is a perfect God, and a Holy God cannot allow any sin into Heaven. Even a “small” sin such as lying will earn us our place in hell. If we are honest, we have all told a lie. And probably have sinned much worse than that. Revelation 21:27 is talking about heaven:
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Just like we earn “wages” from working at a job, our sins earn us “wages”. But unfortunately the wages we earn through sinning is death. But this death is not only of our bodies, but even our eternal souls and the punishment we all deserve is hell.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
BUT GOD LOVES US AND SENT HIS SON AS THE SUBSTITUTIONARY SACRIFICE FOR MANKIND
But God doesn’t want us to go to hell. He provided his Son, Jesus Christ, as a substitutionary sacrifice to take our place for us. Jesus paid the penalty of our sin and bares all mankind’s sin on the cross.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to this earth sent from Heaven to offer a path of salvation for mankind. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary having God the Father as his true Father. The bible teaches that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. We may not quite comprehend this, but one has to believe it by faith. Only God can grant the forgiveness of sins!
Jesus lived a sinless life, performed many miracles, healed the sick, and raised the dead. He preached hard truths to many in that the only way to have eternal life (heaven) was by believing on him. Jesus Christ took on the flesh of man for this purpose to offer himself as the only way of salvation for mankind:
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Jesus came to earth taking on the flesh of man because he loves us. He experienced what it is like to live as a human in the flesh. He lived a perfectly sinless life so that he could sacrifice himself on the cross of Calvary for the sake of his perfect substitutionary death. He offered himself to pay for the sins of mankind. If Jesus had sinned, he would be paying for his own sins. But although tempted like us, he did not sin and thus he was a perfect lamb sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
2 Corinthians 5:21 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.
Jesus spoke truth and many were very offended because they rejected him as the Son of God and instead believed that their adherence to the “law”, their own “good works” or their “status” is what earned them heaven. They were trusting in their own righteousness. Many got angry at Jesus and eventually condemned him to death and he was crucified on the cross as a result. This was God’s salvation plan from the foundation of the earth.
When Jesus was still alive on the cross, crucified, God the Father placed all the sins of the world, past, present, and future upon him as payment for all mankind’s sins:
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
THROUGH BELIEF IN CHRIST’S BLOOD SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS AND HIS RESURRECTION WE ARE SAVED
The Apostle Paul explains the gospel (good news!) in how Christ died for us in 1 Corinthians 15:1 – 4:
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
So the above passages explains the gospel (good news!) in that we must believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that he was buried for 3 days and rose again. Jesus Christ was resurrected into a glorified body and after 40 days ascended to the Father in Heaven and is our mediator between God the Father and mankind. We must believe in Jesus’s resurrection because his resurrection means the promise of our future resurrection is true. If we believe this gospel message from the heart we are saved!
The most important question in the history of the world was asked by the Philippian jailer while overseeing the Apostle Paul and Silas who were in jail for preaching the cause of Christ. The jailer asked the Apostles this question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” as recorded in Acts chapter 16:
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
And thus we are saved by God’s grace through believing that Jesus died for our sins. The definition of “grace” means “unmerited favor”. We don’t deserve to be saved because we have all sinned against a most Holy God. Yet he forgives all of our sins – even future sins we commit – if we believe that his Son Jesus Christ died for our sins by faith in him alone. God loves us and wants us to worship him in truth and by trusting on him and only in him alone for salvation and worship. We trust our salvation by faith, and this is what grants us an eternal salvation, which is truly the free gift of God:
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah promised since the foundation of the world. He had to shed his blood for us because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Jesus explained his upcoming death at the Last Supper with his disciples:
Matthew 28: 27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
When we believe in him for salvation by faith alone, his shed blood washes our eternal soul clean and his righteousness is placed upon us. Once we receive salvation by faith on what Jesus did for us, God no longer sees our eternal souls as sinful, but as perfectly righteous! We have believed on his Son from our heart! And that is what grants us immediate eternal life that cannot be forfeited.
Revelation 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – 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.
Philippians 3:9 – And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
The gospel of John has over 100 instances of the word “believe” which is the foundational message of the book which teaches how Jesus is the Son of God promised to the world and was expressly written so that we can learn how to be saved.
John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
The entire bible uses three main synonyms that capture what it means to believe: Believe, trust, faith. That to believe on Jesus Christ as our savior is to trust in that he died for our sins and rose again is truth. We receive the gift of eternal salvation by faith on the words of the Bible, the Word of God:
John 3:16 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.
The MOMENT we believe from the heart is the moment we are saved:
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Many religions teach there are multiple pathways to God but Jesus himself tells us that HE is the ONLY way to heaven:
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
SALVATION IS A FREE GIFT THAT WE CANNOT FORFEIT AS WE ARE BORN AGAIN AS CHILDREN OF GOD
Now comes the point in the gospel (good news!) that is the major stumbling point of not only unbelievers, but even many Christians who claim to believe on Christ for salvation, yet never did truly understand the gospel because they have been deceived by, and believed in a perverted gospel, a false gospel that has diverted their heart from placing 100% of their faith on Christ and what he has done for us unto something else.
They have instead, unknowingly and unwittingly from the beginning, placed some or all of their faith of salvation from Jesus instead onto themselves or something else. And this is the goal of Satan is to get everyone confused on how to go to heaven. Satan doesn’t want us to be trusting on Jesus 100% for salvation. His goal is to shift some of our trust to something else, to be confused at the outset of seeking Christ, even if only by a few degrees.
The unsaved often cannot accept the free gift of salvation and what Jesus did and they err because they are tricked into believing that they must somehow, even if only a little bit, “be righteous” of their own accord in order to be saved. These people believe they must somehow cooperate in their own salvation by a “commitment” or pledge to “do better, to live better” or that they have to first “turn from their sins” (which means to stop sinning and keep the law) and teach that in order to be saved, we must “try” and keep the laws of God. This frustrates the grace of God as the Apostle Paul told us in the Book of Galatians:
Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
The Apostle Paul explained this “frustration of grace” further in his letter to the Romans and explained that grace and works are completely to be separated when it comes to the doctrine of salvation:
Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
Many who claim to be Christians, do not understand truly what it means to be saved by grace through faith alone. Satan, also known as Lucifer the fallen angel, the adversary of Jesus Christ, is real and his goal is to deceive the unsaved to always think they must “do something” of themselves in order to be saved and thus be accepted into heaven. This is called being “saved by works”. This is often called “working our way to heaven”. We cannot be saved by our own righteousness, or our own good deeds; we cannot earn our way to heaven by our own “works”. In fact, the bible tells us all our own self-righteousness is as filthy rags in God’s eyes:
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
We cannot be saved by our own good deeds as explained in the previous sections of this gospel message. This was the problem of the Pharisees, the dominant Jewish religious sect in Jesus’s time who conspired into arresting and crucifying Jesus because they hated his message of salvation by belief on him alone. The Pharisees and others were offended that Jesus called them hypocrites in that they (the Jews) tried to display their own righteousness (or by genealogy of the flesh) as the pathway to heaven, yet in truth they were sinners just like everyone else.
Most of the Jews did not understand that only through believing on the Messiah, Jesus the Christ (Christ which means anointed), the Son of God, and that only through him will they be granted remission of sins. Instead they believed on their own righteousness to get them to heaven. They largely rejected Christ and thus they demanded his death on the cross because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and the Jews largely rejected him as a result.
This is the biblical truth lesson that remains to this day which hinders many to be saved. Many still trust in their own righteousness, their own “good deeds” to be saved.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Satan’s goal of a false gospel message is to confuse the unbeliever into a false pathway to salvation. And if you have paid attention so far, we are only saved by faith on what Jesus has done for us. We are saved by believing that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. That we must trust completely in what he did for us.
We are NOT saved by anything WE have done, or wish to do, or hope to do, or how we live our life, or how sorry we feel for our sins, or our promised behavior in the future, or our genealogy, or anything that shifts the focus of salvation off of Jesus and onto ourselves or something else. The bible tells us we receive the free gift of salvation by simply receiving Jesus Christ through belief on his name:
John 1:11 He [Jesus] came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The best definition of the word “even” in most cases of the King James Bible is best thought of as “specifically”. So those that specifically believe on Jesus become adopted children of God! The moment we believe, we are spiritually born into God’s spiritual kingdom and receive the free gift of eternal life. This is also known as being “born again”. This is the spiritual birth that Jesus explained to Nicodemus so famously in John chapter 3:5:
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Being born of water is explaining our fleshly birth from the womb of our physical mother. We were nurtured in that womb surrounded by a water sac and we were born into this world in the sinful flesh by the breaking of our mother’s water sac. This is being born of water, being born of the flesh as Jesus explained.
The second birth is a spiritual birth. This happens the moment we believe and trust completely that Jesus died for our sins in our place and paid the penalty for our sins. This occurs in an instant of time the moment we believe this. Indeed our natural birth of the flesh occurred in a short moment of time. And thus our spiritual birth, being spiritually born again, occurs just as rapidly.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
And thus the moment we believe from the heart is the moment we are granted eternal life and become sons of God. Indeed, we are adopted children of God. And the bible teaches us we CANNOT lose that spiritual birth of being a child of God once we believe and are saved. One cannot become “unborn” physically and the spiritual truth is that once we believe on Jesus that he died for our sins we cannot become “unborn” spiritually. This is the biblical truth of “once saved always saved”. People think that every person in the world is a child of God, but the truth is only those that believe on Christ, those that receive him as their savior, become children of God.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
This is the true biblical belief in the free gift of salvation. This is the belief that once we are born again spiritually, we cannot “lose” the free gift or even give back the gift on our own accord once accepted and received. This is the true belief that eternal life cannot be taken away or given back once we obtain it in a moment of time of belief from our heart. This is the belief that gives us FULL confidence that once we believe on Jesus Christ and what he did for us we CANNOT become “unborn” again. This is what the first section of this message of 1 John 5 is saying: if we believe on Jesus Christ we can KNOW that we have eternal life through believing on his name, the Son of God.
Jesus emphatically told us that once we believe on him both he and God the Father will hold on to us and that NO ONE – not even ourselves – can break free from God’s grip on us once we believe on Jesus for salvation from our heart.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Indeed, the bible teaches that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God once we believe on him and are saved:
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Yet many proclaimed “Christians”, of all denominations, have instead focused the trust of salvation to themselves or rituals or works they think they must do to their great error which leads to damnation. They believe they can somehow lose their salvation if they do some bad sin. The truth is we could never do enough to earn our salvation and thus we can never do a sin bad enough to lose our salvation. Either we believe Jesus PAID for all our sins on the cross or not. There is no in between. There is no “partial” salvation. We both believe and trust on him by faith for salvation or we don’t.
ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER IS ESSENTIAL FOR BELIEF ON JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION
Again, this gospel treatise is hammering home the essential belief of the “eternal security of the believer”. And thus it is repeated for emphasis.
Jesus spoke of the essential doctrine of the eternal security of the believer in every “believe” verse he spoke in the book of John. For example, in John 11:26 he is asking the person that if they believe on him they will never die. This is an example where Jesus is teaching in what saved believers call “once saved always saved”.
John 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
This is an essential belief that is part and parcel on believing on Jesus Christ. That if we trust on Christ for eternal life, eternal salvation, we must believe that we cannot lose that salvation, that we cannot lose eternal life that is promised to us by God who cannot lie:
Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
Because if you believe you can “lose” your everlasting salvation, then you are not trusting completely on Christ. If you believe you can lose your salvation you are still splitting your trust based on what you do in the future and not based on believing and trusting on Jesus alone for salvation. You are still trusting in your own future deeds and works. And thus you do not believe the gospel and you are not saved!
In John 8:24 Jesus spoke very bluntly to the Pharisees in that if they did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah – the savior of the world – they would face the punishment of hell and have to pay for their own sins:
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
BELIEVERS RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST AND GOD CHASTISES EVERY SON IN WHOM HE RECEIVES
We are saved by faith alone. And that any sins we commit after salvation are covered just as much by God’s grace as the sins we committed before we received Christ as our savior. Does that mean we are to continue in sin once we believe on Jesus Christ by faith? Of course not, the Apostle Paul through the Holy Spirit answered this question because God knew it would come. But where sin abounded, grace abounded more. That once we become children of God, the sins we continue to commit are always covered by the grace of God.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.
Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Once we receive Christ by faith the Holy Spirit comes and lives within us and seals us and being a witness that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Once we believe on Jesus by faith, we should want to please him by living a life that is free from sin as much as possible. But we always have the sinful flesh until the day we physically die and that sinful body is removed by death. And until that day, we continue to have the flesh sin nature in us and will continue to have the propensity to sin. Yet once we believe on Jesus, the Holy Spirit seals our eternal soul and spirit until the day we get resurrected and our own glorified bodies:
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
As has been explained, once we believe by faith that Jesus died on the cross for our sins we become God’s children. And as his children, we should want to please our Father in heaven. But we will always have the sinful flesh. If we commit sins after becoming children of God by faith alone, even a very bad sin such as being guilty of murdering someone we will face punishment here on earth in this body. Hebrews chapter 12 explains this:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
So therefore we do not “lose our salvation” if we commit sins after believing on Christ. God knows all the sins we will ever commit and he died 2000 years ago knowing this! God will never let us go or send us to hell once he adopts us as sons or daughters. But he may punish us and keep blessings from us if we live in sin here on this earth still in the body. He can even kill us outright for willful disobedience and send us home – to heaven – early. The best example of this is King Saul who was jealous of David and persecuted him. In Saul’s last days he even consulted a witch to bring up Samuel the Prophet to try and get advice from him. God did send Samuel but Samuel told King Saul that tomorrow he will be with him in Heaven:
1 Samuel 28:18 Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
King Saul was a saved child of God. But we can see that King Saul’s behavior was so bad in rebelling against the Lord’s will and breaking of his commandments that God was going to bring about Saul’s death and bring him home to heaven by an early death. In fact if we read the story of what happened, King Saul was mortally wounded in battle and wished to die so he wouldn’t face torture at the hands of the Philistines. He asked his armourbearer to kill him but the armourbearer was too scared to do it.
Instead King Saul fell on his own sword and committed suicide. This is an example of how even very bad sins we commit as believers – even at the end of our life – will be punished here on earth while we still are in the flesh body. Believers are not sent to hell for sins, instead they face the chastisement and punishment of God while we are still alive on earth. Falling on a sword is a very gruesome and painful way to die. Suicide is a very sinful way to end one’s life, yet King Saul is in heaven.
1 Samuel 31:4 Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.
If you read the entire story of King Saul, he was also guilty of murder as was Moses. Moses killed a man prior to being called by God to lead the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt. And even King David was also guilty of murder and adultery. All three are believers on the Lord. Yet King Saul, Moses and King David are in heaven!
So this point of eternal security of the believer needs to be hammered home and is essential. Because if we believe we can do something to lose our salvation, then we are still trusting on our own future behavior and not on Jesus Christ and we don’t believe the record that he has granted us eternal life. The book of 1 John chapter 5 explains this:
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
So we have to believe that we receive eternal life and that we CANNOT ever lose our salvation as many Christian denominations falsely teach. If we believe that committing horrible sins will cause us to “lose” our salvation, then we are still placing our faith, our trust on ourselves, in effect making ourselves our own savior and not Jesus. And this will not be accepted by God. We are still trusting on our own “works”.
Jesus warned that MANY seeking him, claiming his name will not make it into heaven because they were instead trusting in their own “works”, their own behavior and they never actually understood “faith alone to be saved”. They may have partly believed on Jesus, but they did not trust on Jesus alone. They never actually placed all their faith on what Jesus did and instead relied on what they were doing to make it to heaven. The famous passages in Matthew chapter 7 explain:
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
As you can see above, Jesus was showing us that MANY people who claim to be Christian were trusting in their “good works” to earn their way into heaven. But the truth is quite the opposite. The way is actually “narrow” because it is by faith alone:
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
John 3:36 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.
SO YOU ARE CLAIMING THAT EVEN THE MOST VILE PEOPLE CAN BE SAVED IF THEY JUST “BELIEVE”? EVEN WICKED SERIAL KILLERS THAT HAVE DONE THE MOST DISGUSTING VILE UNNATURAL SINS?
No! The truth of the matter is once a person dies in this life without believing that Jesus Christ died for their sins their eternal soul is sent to hell to be in fiery torment where the “worm dieth not”. Hell is a place where people who REJECT God’s salvation gospel are sent. Once you are in hell, God has rejected you and in truth he hates you. And you will be in fiery torment forever is what the bible teaches. Jesus explains in the story of the rich man who died without believing the gospel in the book of Luke:
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
But there can be a point while still living in this body where God can reject a person and turn them over to a “reprobate mind”. “Reprobate” means “rejected”. This happens when a person hears the gospel and understands the gospel, that we are saved by faith alone on Jesus Christ, yet rejects this message enough times to where God gives up on the person here on earth even while still alive in this body. They are then in turn rejected by God and turned over to the devil: Satan. In the Old Testament they were often called “sons of Belial”. The modern vernacular is “child of the devil”. Even Jesus told us that the wicked religious leaders of his day were producing evil fruit and spreading false gospel and creating “children of hell”.
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
The Book of Romans, chapter 1 explains this process in full. God has shown every person his mighty glory through the marvelous mystery of this vast, beautiful and wondrous universe that he created. The wonder and mystery of this vast universe is meant to help us to seek his truth. Thatwe have no excuse to seek his truth for salvation and eternal life. God WANTS us to be saved. He draws us to him through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ by believers – called “soul winners” – and by displaying the glorious wonders and creatures he has created. Yet pride is what often caused many to reject God. God hates a prideful person for this reason. Romans chapter 1:
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
The process of a person rejecting the gospel message of salvation unfolds in Romans 1:
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Does everyone who initially reject the salvation good news of believing on Jesus Christ automatically become a rejected person by God? No, of course not! God is long-suffering of our sins, even wicked sins and for the vast majority, gives us a lifetime to come to a belief on the gospel. No one can see into a heart of a person! Only God can. But we can know that God CAN and DOES reject people on this earth and removes the “moral compass” to those that truly have hardened their hearts toward him and hate him.
So when we see a person commit vile sins such as a wicked serial killer who has pleasure in torturing and murdering others, we can suspect that person may have a reprobate mind, a person who has rejected the gospel and as a result of that person first rejecting and hating God, God can remove the “moral compass” from them so that their wickedness would be manifest to the world and be an example for us to seek the truth of God.
One example is the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a vile homosexual who abducted some 17 young men, killed them in brutal fashion and performed vile sexual acts on them and cut up their bodies. These are clearly unnatural sins and he had a reprobate mind. Yet he claimed to come and believe on Jesus Christ while in prison after his trial. This confuses people who are seeking God. How can that vile wicked person claim to be saved to Jesus Christ? The truth of the matter is that Satan used him even in his final years in prison to deceive people who are seeking the truth of salvation. Romans 1 describe a person with a reprobate mind as being full of deceit. These people no longer have natural affection. Reprobates have ALL of the following attributes:
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
No, Jeffrey Dahmer was not saved; he was a twofold child of hell because he first rejected the gospel of salvation at some point in his life and despised God. We know this because Romans 1 explains it in full. Therefore God gave him over to a reprobate mind. And his manifest wickedness was on display as a warning for others. In prison he claimed to have come to believe on Jesus for salvation, but make no mistake, he was lying to the end. Had he been executed in a timely fashion as the bible commands for murderers, he would not have had time to deceive further. Satan used his feigned profession of Christ to cause others to stumble about the gospel.
God is a righteous God and his judgment is always perfect! Hell is real, and people that die and go to hell are rejected. Yet God commands saved Christians to “preach the gospel to every creature”. Even though we may suspect someone might be a reprobate by a very sinful and even wicked lifestyle, we are commanded to try and reach that person and give them the good news that sinners can be saved if they believe that Jesus died for their sins. But the truth of the matter is that very wicked people who commit unnatural sins, such as pedophilia or bestiality or have vile lust for the same sex, are probably haters of God. They were not born that way, God made them that way as a result of them rejecting salvation in the first place. Their example is a warning for the world.
This is known as the “reprobate doctrine” and explains why people in this world can commit such heinous, wicked, vile and utterly disgusting unnatural sins that cause other unbelievers to stumble and reject the truth of the Gospel. How can God save such a wicked and vile creature that gleefully murders the innocent and has pleasure in doing so? The answer is that person is vile and wicked because they first rejected the free salvation offered and God then gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things. God allows evil in this world as a warning to the unsaved to seek him in truth. To believe on his good news message that Jesus will save us once we believe that he died for our sins. Great is the mystery of God and who can challenge his ways?
WILL WE AUTOMATICALLY DO “GOOD WORKS” WHEN WE GET SAVED? WHEN WE BELIEVE ON JESUS?
No. The “works” we do for God, after we believe on him first by faith alone, come after salvation by faith alone if we so choose. Mankind has been given freewill. Once saved, we should try and please God by keeping his commandments. We will get heavenly eternal rewards if we do. But it is essential that the unbeliever seeking salvation understand this key difference. The sad fact is that MOST of “Christianity” teaches a “back-door” works-based salvation. They teach we must be willing to “turn from sin” (often stated as “repent of sins and turn to Christ to be saved”) or be willing to “clean up our life first” before believing on Christ or teach that once we are saved we will automatically “do good works” as a result of our salvation or as proof of our salvation. Or they teach we must be “sorry” for our sins. Nope, that is just Satan’s feigned false gospel to sneak “works” into the gospel so as to confuse the unsaved person seeking salvation. Satan is trying to get the unbeliever who is seeking the truth to first believe that they must change their behavior first in order to be saved. It is a subtle twisting of the “good news” of the free salvation by faith alone that God offers us. Just like in the Garden of Eden when he told Eve “Yea, hath God said…?”
This message that we must somehow “do something” of ourselves or commit to a changing of future behavior in order to be saved is NOT good news! It is a message of condemnation and a false gospel message! We need only believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose again!
This is summed up in this verse in the Book of Romans chapter 4 in that we need not do any works to be saved or as proof of our salvation:
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Again, as so thoroughly covered above, we should try and please God after salvation by faith alone. We will get rewarded with his blessings here on earth if we keep his commandments and do things that please him. And if we continue to live in sinful ways after receiving Christ by faith God might just bring the hammer down on us. But again, he is longsuffering. He gives us time to grow our spiritual self in Christ.
Why does God allow very wicked people to seemingly live long lives? Their rejection of Jesus Christ results in the punishment of eternal hell, and they will get what they have earned. The bible does teach that there exists “greater damnation”, a concept of the “lowest parts of hell”. But in the end, those that reject the gospel the punishment of hell await them when they die. A place eternal fiery torment.
THE TRINITY OF GOD. GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
Most all of “Christianity” believes in the concept of the “Trinity” of God. That God is one but he exists in 3 persons. This is the triune nature of God:
1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
This is hard for us to comprehend that one God can exist in 3 persons. But we must believe it by faith because we have nothing to directly compare God to. Yet God constructed this universe in ways that often exist in three forms to help us understand. For instance we have time, space, and matter. Or at the atomic level, atoms have protons, electrons and neutrons. Or things exist in gas, liquids and solids. Or the example of earth, water and air. But when we think of our own being and what the bible teaches about us, we have a soul, body and spirit. Each part of this is “us” but they are separate parts of us. This is not an exact match to how we believe on God but it helps:
1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We exist in 3 parts to help us comprehend that God is one, but he exists in 3 persons. In the same manner humans are one although we have soul, body and spirit, 3 parts. God shows this 3 persons in Genesis chapter 1 that he made man in “our image”:
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Christianity is unique in two things: 1) we believe in eternal life by faith alone and not works. 2) we believe that there is but one God but God exists in the form of 3 persons, The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many religions such as Islam and Judaism will claim Christianity is polytheistic or idolatrous but they err greatly to their own destruction. Great is the mystery of God and we believe the bible to be true by faith because faith alone is what saves us!
A REVIEW OF EVERYTHING PRESENTED. WHAT MUST I BELIEVE FROM THE HEART TO BE SAVED?
The following items underscore the basics of what we must believe about the good news of the gospel in order to be saved:
- We believe that all sin and that we deserve the punishment of hell as a result.
- We believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, was crucified and shed his blood on the cross for mankind. He was buried and rose again after 3 days and now sits at the right hand of God the Father.
- We believe that Jesus died for our sins and paid the penalty through faith on his blood sacrifice on the cross and Jesus grants us eternal life the moment we believe and trust on him.
- We believe that our faith in him rescues us from the punishment of hell that we deserve.
- We believe God declares us perfectly righteous when we place our faith completely on him.
- We believe Jesus is fully God and fully man. Only God can grant the forgiveness of sins of the eternal soul.
- We believe in the FREE gift of salvation. We believe we can never do anything to earn salvation and we believe we can never do anything to lose salvation once received. We believe in the eternal security of the believer. Spiritually born again, and once saved, always saved.
- We believe that God is in the form of three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. These 3 are one and we believe this by faith.
- We believe that when we die we go to heaven to always be with Lord.
- We believe in our future resurrection. As Christ was resurrected, so will we be.
These are the things that many denominations teach falsely. For instance in Mormonism, they don’t believe Jesus is God but that he is a created being. Or Catholicism doesn’t believe in faith alone but that we must do works and one can lose their salvation. Or Pentecostalism believes one can lose their salvation and/or some sects believe that God does not exist in 3 persons but that he is one person (modalism) who shapeshifts. And many protestant groups such as Methodists, Lutherans, or Anglicans or others believe that one must partially work, via sacraments and baptism for salvation. They don’t claim it is work but it is in fact works-based salvation.
Many evangelist non-denominations and even many Baptists champion “faith alone saves” yet on the same hand teach that we must “turn from sin to be saved” or that we must “surrender to the Lordship of Christ” in order to be saved. This is called “Lordship salvation” and is just another way Satan has managed to get unbelievers to trust on their works and not trust on Jesus Christ alone for salvation. The deception of false gospels runs deep.
SIRS, WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!
How do we express our belief to God that we believe Jesus died for our sins? How do we ask for the and receive the free gift of salvation? We ask verbally with our mouths as the bible teaches in Romans chapter 10:
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 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.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
We do this in a simple prayer that we say aloud. Speaking aloud helps us to believe from our heart. Even the thief on the cross verbally asked to be saved and Jesus immediately granted it. We simply speak with our mouths and believe from our heart that Jesus will save us and that we believe he died for our sins. Usually a simple prayer goes like this:
Dear Lord Jesus, I believe I am a sinner and deserve the punishment of hell. But I believe you are the Son of God and that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again after the 3rd day. I ask for the free gift of salvation and eternal life. Please save me! I am only trusting in you Jesus! Amen!
If you have prayed that simple prayer from the heart welcome to eternal life!
