After This Life, Do You Know Where You're Going To?
Jesus said to him, βI am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
In life, it's often said, direction is more important than speed.
That is to say, if you have to choose between going in the right direction or going through life at high speed, you will be better off going in the right direction.
Unfortunately, majority of people are journeying through life at high speed in wrong direcrions. At last, they opened their eyes to see they've travelled too far and for too long in wrong directions. At their end points, many only discover, that they've just rushed and landed at unintended destinations. For many, there is no chance to make U-turns back to paths of correction or restart.
You only have a one-time chance at life. Yet, when it comes to the issue of their salvation and eternal destiny; many treat the idea of βthe dead being in a better placeβ as a foregone conclusion.
Based on the βcommon knowledgeβ of an all loving God, people in my place will often conclude, "the dead person has gone "home" to rest.
But oir Lord Jesus Christ never taught us that. That assertion is just mere common human knowledge.
And "Common knowledgeβ is generally common ignorance because βeveryone knowsβ the same false beliefs β or lies of the enemy.
We need to know the truth about what matters in life, and in death.
While we should be kind and compassionate to the grieving, as Christians we need to follow the teachings of Jesus and encourage the living to put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV) 12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
Your good morals cannot save you
Your religion without the saving knowledge of Christ will not do.
The church you go or identify with will not guarantee you heaven's ticket.
Your good deeds outweighs you bad can won't open heaven gates for you . All our righteousness is like filthy rags in God's sight. And the scroptures there is none righteous, not even one.
In John 14:6 Jesus declared, βI am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
The implications of Christβs words are that eternal life is found by those who believe in Him and those who donβt believe are condemned to perish.
As for other ways to eternal life in Godβs kingdom, Jesus spoke plainly that He is the only way in:
If you donβt βknow Jesusβ and more importantly if He doesnβt know you as one of His followers, you are not going to a βbetter placeβ.
So donβt believe the lie that βthe dead go to a better placeβ because only those who put their faith in Jesus will be declared righteous and will receive eternal life in Godβs kingdom.
In John 3:14-18 (NKJV) our Lord Jesus Christ stated this about His mission on earth,
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus Christ told us to enter in through the straight gate and the narrow way (that leads to salvation). And Jesus Christ is the Way.
Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV)
13 βEnter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Apart from going through Jesus Christ, our righteousness cannot get us to God, Jesus Christ came to show us the way. In fact, He is theOne and Only Way, and not one of many ways.
How do you enter into this Right Way?
You enter into this Way - Jesus Christ, through faith and repentance.
Acts 17:30 (NKJV) Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 26:20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
There is no salvation in any other except through the name of Jesus.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Here on earth, no single one of us is going to escape alive. For it is appointed unto all men to live and die and after death comes tje judgement.
Hebrews 9:27 (KJV) And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
It's therefore mandatory for you to answer this question for yourself,
Matt 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
The Bible said that the wrath of God is coming upon the ungodly and the sinner
Romans 1:18 (NKJV) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
God's wrath is coming upon sinful humanity who refused to repent. Jesus Christ is our Only Advocate before. our Holy God.
1 John 2:1 (KJV) My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV) 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.
Repentance towards God & faith in the Lord Jesus bring us into the experience of God's love - Salvation.
John 3:36 (NKJV) He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.β
1 John 5:11-13 (NKJV)
11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
With additional insights from Pastor M T Clark