The Hope of Heaven
Two pillars of the Christian faith are the Cross where Jesus laid down His life to be the sacrifice by paying the blood price for our sins; like an unblemished lamb being sacrificed on our behalf. Secondly, by the Resurrection of Jesus, who took away the keys of death from Satan, conquered Satan by coming back to life on the third day after His crucifixion, so we may have everlasting life! On these two pillars we have the hope of living in Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ forever.
Many have searched for hope in various ways, through other religions, mysticism, positive thoughts, mind control to name some. But only one way is true: it is the free gift of grace Jesus had atoned for our sins on the cross.
What god other than Jesus would lay down his life for others? None! What god other than Jesus have come back to life after death? None! Other man made gods have so many rules for us to follow, and maybe, if we work hard enough in righteous acts and rule keeping can we achieve heaven? The answer is no! One slip up would put us in jeopardy of our salvation and we will always slip up because we have a sin nature.
With Jesus, all we need to do is to receive the free gift of grace, heart believe it, not just intellectually believe, but grab hold of it with your heart and receive it. Believe in Jesus, let the Holy Spirit live in you and you too will have everlasting life. Get into His Word, the Bible, till it starts talking back to you.
What keeps us from accepting the free gift of grace?
Some people don’t want to change their lifestyles.
What people may not realize is that when they confess their sins, and believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to reside in them. A heart change starts happening inside the person without one even noticing at first! A heart change comes naturally without one even trying! You may start doing less and less of a bad habit because the desire leaves you. I have experienced this countless times and from glory to glory I become more like Christ.
There is a sense of neglect.
Soberly, we may think we have all the time in the world to accept Jesus, not realizing by putting off the decision to accept Jesus we are putting our souls in jeopardy of eternal torment. We do not know when our life is over, even in the next minute! Then it is too late. I have cancer and I have the realization that my life span may be shortened or it may not be shortened by God’s grace. I live day to day depending on Jesus to get me through. We have no control when it is our time to pass away. Now is the time to make the decision to accept Christ as our Savior for we are not guaranteed tomorrow.
You see, our salvation is not dependent on our righteousness to go to Heaven. It is by Jesus’ righteousness and His work on the cross that we are saved. Jesus sits on the throne next to His Father, resting because His work on the cross is finished. We are righteous because God the Father sees His son Jesus when He looks upon us and we are covered in Jesus’ righteousness. Our spirit rests in Him, even though physically we may be here on earth living out our lives. This is the joy Christians have because we are at peace knowing our rest is in Him, and no matter how hard life can be, we are saved for everlasting life.
This is the great hope of Jesus Christ.
Jesus answered. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”
John 14:6-7. NIV