Once someone finds out that there is life after death, one of the first things that person thinks about is what their ultimate destination will be. After all, if we are all headed somewhere when we die, then that is an extremely important question for each one of us. In fact, when faced with the prospect of life after death, often a lot of questions arise. Will I go to heaven? Will I go to hell? Are there any other possibilities? What about my family? Is there any way I can know for sure what is going to happen to me?
One of the key reasons why people turn to religion is to try to get answers for those questions.
But which religion is right?
After all, there must be hundreds of religions out there.
Well, it all becomes much simpler when one looks at the evidence. The sad reality is that the vast majority of religions in the world have absolutely no solid evidence to back them up.
So do any religions have evidence to back their claims up?
Yes, Christianity does.
If you are not aware of the mountain of evidence for the Christian faith, we would encourage you to check out another website that we have put together about that evidence:
http://whygodreallyexists.com/
The truth is that God is very real, and the good news is that He loves you very much.
In fact, He loves you much more than you can imagine.
The Scriptures go on and on about how great the love of God is and how much He cares about each one of us individually.
But there is a problem.
Humanity is in deep rebellion against God.
For the most part, humanity has rejected God, has rejected His laws, and breaks them on a constant basis.
The truth is that most of us like to think of ourselves as “good” people, but we aren’t.
Just imagine this – a big television network wants to do a big two hour special starring you.
Doesn’t that sound great?
But instead of talking about how great you are, the network has found all of the most horrible and the most dirty and the most evil things you have ever thought, said or did and they are going to broadcast them to millions of people for two hours.
That truth is that if that happened to any of us, we would want to run away in shame and never come back?
Why?
Because we are sinful, just as the Scriptures tell us…..
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
The reality is that we were created to have fellowship with God, but we chose not to follow God and we broke His laws. Just read the Ten Commandments. How many of them have you broken? When we broke God’s commandments, fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is evidence of what the Bible calls sin.
As a result of our sin, we are separated from God as the Scriptures tell us…..
“The wages of sin is death” [spiritual separation from God] (Romans 6:23).
So what can be done about this separation?
God can’t just sweep our evil under the rug. If He did that, He would cease to be just.
There is a penalty for evil, and that penalty must be paid.
Fortunately, Jesus Christ paid that penalty for our sins by doing for us on the cross as the Scriptures say…..
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Not only that, but Jesus Christ proved that He was the Son of God by rising from the dead…..
“Christ died for our sins…He was buried…He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures…He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).
If there was any other way for us to be reconciled to God, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross. He could have just told us to follow one of the other ways to get to heaven. But there was no other way. The death of Jesus on the cross is the only payment for our sins and He is the only way that we are going to get to heaven…..
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me'” (John 14:6).
But it is not enough just to know these things.
The Scriptures tell us that we must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
So how does a person receive Christ?
A person receives Christ through faith…..
“By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
The Scriptures tell us that if we invite Jesus into our lives by faith He will most certainly come in…..
[Christ speaking] “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).
Receiving Christ involves turning to God from our sin (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for your sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. You receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.
You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer.
God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your exact words as He is with the attitude of your heart. The following is a suggested prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”
Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, we invite you to pray this prayer right now and Jesus will come into your life, as He promised.
If you have asked Jesus Christ to come into your life you can have 100 percent certainty that you have become a Christian and that you will go to heaven when you die. In 1 John 5:11-13, the Scriptures tell us this…..
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
That is very comforting news. A Christian can know for certainly what is going to happen to them after life is over. A Christian can know for sure that they will go to heaven.
If you want that kind of certainty in your own life we would invite you to become a Christian today. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below and we will do our best to answer them. Thank you for visiting our site, and we hope that it is helpful to you in your search for the truth.
