Where will you spend eternity?

There are numerous questions that occupy our minds. Questions relating to our health, finances, career, retirement and our children’s future. You will have thought of one of these questions at some point in your life. We believe the most important question is: where will you spend eternity?

The answer to this question for you has to do with your personal relationship with God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s way of eternal salvation for people on earth is amazingly simple, yet for many it has become extremely complicated. There are several opinions as to how you and I can gain a right relationship with God. The following is a collection of verses from God’s Word, the Bible, that explains how you and I can be saved now and for eternity and be totally assured of your home in Heaven.

We encourage you to consider these verses carefully, and to attempt to answer for yourself where you will spend eternity.

1. God’s Word tells us . . .

God’s love for you is infinite and impartial

“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” (John 3:16)
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16)
“Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2)

All have sinned and need to be saved

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6)
“But your iniquities have separated … you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2)
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9)
“There is no difference. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22, 23)
“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23)
“What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” (Psalms 89:48)

You can’t save yourself by your own good works

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5)
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)
“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” (Ephesians 2:8, 9)
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5)

You can’t save yourself by keeping the Ten Commandments

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1st John 3:4)
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20)
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ … for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16)
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:4)

Christ has already provided for your salvation

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1st Timothy 1:15)
“The LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6)
(The Lord Jesus Christ) “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25)
“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1st Peter 2:24)
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1st Peter 3:18)
“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” (2nd Corinthians 5:21)

When the penalty for our sin was paid for by the Lord Jesus on the cross, He said: “It is finished” and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost (John 19:30). That is, Christ finished all that was required to make reconciliation between sinners and a Holy God.

2. You can receive God’s free gift of salvation NOW by accepting Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour

A person is not saved by “getting religion”, by “joining a church”, by “turning over a new leaf”, nor by any other of his own efforts. To simply believe that God exists is insufficient. Salvation is only obtained by accepting Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as Saviour and Lord.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation”. (2nd Corinthians 6:2)

Accepting Christ as Saviour involves two things: Repentance and Faith

Repentance simply means to turn to God from your old way of life, or to have a complete change of heart and mind. It involves recognising God’s way as the only way, seeing yourself as God sees you (i.e. as a sinner), realising the awfulness of sin, seeing your lost condition and your need of a Saviour.

“As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalms 18:30)
“The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (Psalms 145:17)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
(Jesus said) “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13)
“Repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (Acts 26:20)
“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3)
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15)

Faith is the hand that reaches out and trusts God for all that He has said to be true. It is not faith itself that saves – it is only God who can save us. Genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death for your sin is the means by which we are saved. The evidence of your faith will be a loving desire to know and obey God. Genuine faith will lead to a dependence on God that will enable you to look to Christ for your deliverance from the penalty of sin, and to relinquish your soul to the care of the Lord.

“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” (Ephesians 2:8, 9)
“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power (the legal right) to become the sons (children) of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:11-12)
“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” (John 3:16)
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31)
“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)

God says it. Christ has done it. I believe it. That settles it!

Accepting and confessing Christ as Lord

When you are truly saved, the first thing you will want to do is tell people about your tremendous peace, contentment and happiness. Furthermore, you will gladly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11). Confession, then, is the outworking of your salvation, and is simply a matter of declaring Jesus Christ (whom God has made both Lord and Christ) to be your Saviour and your Lord. On many occasions, the scriptures make it clear that those who accepted Christ as Saviour also acknowledged Him as their Lord and Master.

“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” (Romans 10:9-10)
“Whosoever therefore shall confess Me (Jesus) before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33)

God at once grants you a new nature and new standing (or position)

When God grants you salvation, he will impart to you a new nature. Before God, you are no longer guilty of your sin, but forgiven and fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2nd Corinthians 5:17)
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1)
“God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32)
“That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7)

Now saved, you are a child of God eternally

When God saves your soul, He saves it for eternity. The Bible does not teach that we can be saved today and lost tomorrow. Nor does the Bible teach that our salvation is dependent on my ability to believe, to keep the ten commandments, or to understand the great and deep truths of the Bible. Rather, our salvation depends on what Christ has done and God’s promise of salvation through simple faith. We may fall and stumble; we may fail to live the perfect “Christian life”. Alas – nothing will separate the child of God from his eternal Father!

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”. (1st John 3:1)
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”. (Romans 8:16)
“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” (John 10:28-29)
“He that cometh to Me I will in no wise (or, I will certainly not) cast out” (John 6:37)
“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” (Romans 8:38-39)

3. Summary

Dear friend, God is pleading with you to turn from your old ways and to believe all that He has said. He wants to save you right now. Turn to Him and receive the gift of eternal life, abundant joy and unparalleled peace He so lovingly wants to give you. Your eternal destiny is in your hands. Consider carefully where you will spend eternity.

What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)