Imagine heaven.
Imagine hell.
We are given a stark contrast, in the Bible, between
heaven and hell.
Imagine hell.
Hell is described as a “lake that burns with fire and
sulfur,” (Revelation 21: 8, ESV). In
hell, we are told that “their worm does not die and fire is not quenched” (Mark
9:48, ESV). Another version translates
worms as maggots (NLT). Imagine rotting
for eternity in your burning flesh, being eaten for eternity by maggots, but
not even having death as an option to give you relief.
We know from the scripture who those who go to hell are: the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,
as for murders, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars”
(Revelation 21: 8, ESV). John said, “Then
I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away,
and no place was found for them. And I
saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were
opened. Then another book was opened,
which is the book of life. And the dead
were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had
done. And the sea gave up the dead who
were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they
were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and
Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in
the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15,
ESV).
Imagine heaven.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his
people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor
pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he how was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold,
I am making all things new.’ Also he
said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end. To the thirsty I will give
from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage,
and I will be his God and he will be my son.
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murders,
the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will
be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.’
“Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven
bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will
show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain and
showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having
the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as
crystal. It had a great, high wall, with
twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the
twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on
the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three
gates. And the wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring
rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same
as its width. And he measured the city
with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length
and width and height are equal. He also
measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s
measurement. The wall was built of
jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were
adorned with every kind of jewel. The
first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the
fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh crysolite, the eighth beryl, the
ninth topaz, the tenth chrysophrase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth
amethyst. And the twelve gates were
twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the
city was pure gold, transparent as glass.
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the
Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And
the city has no need of sun or boon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives
it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By
its light will the nations walk, and the kinds of the earth will bring their
glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no
night there. They will bring into it the
glory and the honor of the nations. But
nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or
false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation
21:1-27, ESV).
David said:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together
in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I
am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well My frame was not hidden from you, when I was
being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your
book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as
yet there was none of them” (Psalms 139: 13-16, ESV).
Our every action, and possible action, God knows. He will judge us according to them, unless
our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
How does one get his name written in the Lamb’s book of
life?
Paul and Silas were asked this question by the Philippian
jailer who imprisoned them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30,
ESV). “And they said, ‘Believe in the
Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31, ESV).
David sad, “I have chosen the way of faithfulness, I set
your rules before me” (Psalm 119:30, ESV).
This is also translated: “I have chosen the way of truth, I have set my
heart on your laws” (Psalm 119:30, NIV).”
Jesus told his disciples, “Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God; believe also
in me. In my Father’s house are many
rooms. If it were not so, would I have
told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take
you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I
am going” (John 14:1-4, ESV).
Doubting, Thomas replied, “Lord, we do not know where you
are going. How can we know the way?”
(John 14:5).
Jesus responded, “I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except
through me. If you had known me, you
would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him”
(John 14: 6-7, ESV).
Jesus, on earth, was the incarnation of the Father, in
heaven. Incarnation is defined by
Merriam-Webster, Inc., (2011) as, “the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some
earthly form” (para. 1). Basically,
Jesus was God in an “earth suit,” similar to yours and mine. Some people feel that they know God, but do
not acknowledge Jesus as God. They don’t
know how wrong they are.
My pastor, Dr. Jim Shaddix, once said, “God is the only
God that will ever be, Jesus is the only God you will ever see, and the Holy
Spirit is the only God you will ever feel.”
Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and in truth” (John 4: 24, ESV).
Jesus did not stop being God when he was born in a body, nor did he
cease being God when he died and rose again.
(That is why he was able to rise again).
Before he died, he gave this promise to us: “These things I have spoken to you while I am
still with you. But the Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you,” (John 14:25-26,
ESV). The King James Version (KJV)
translates the word that the English Standard Version (ESV) uses “Helper” for,
as “Comforter,” to describe the nature of the Holy Spirit. The New International Version (NIV) uses
“Counselor,” do describe his action.
God gave us rules to follow, called “God’s Law.” Originally, he gave these rules to the Jews through
Moses, long after making his covenant with Abraham. Presumed lack of knowledge of God’s rules does
not justify our inadequacy in keeping them. In Romans, Paul explains, “All who sin apart
from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law
will be judged by the law. For it is not
those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who
obey the law who will be declared righteous.
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things
required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not
have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on
their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now
accusing, now even defending them.) This
will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus
Christ, as my gospel declares” (Romans 2:12-16, ESV). Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, you have
no excuse: God’s law was told to us and written on our hearts. Yet man, in his evil nature, chose to oppose
God.
In Romans, Paul instructs us, “The wrath of God is being
revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who
suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is
plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of
the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse. For although they knew God, they
neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became
futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the
glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and
animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of
their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one
another. They exchanged the truth of God
for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is
forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to
shameful lusts. Even their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and
were inflamed with lust for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves
the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore,
since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave
them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of
wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters,
insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey
their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree
that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these
very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1, ESV).
Paul continues, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who
pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you
are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Romans 2:1, ESV).
We are expected to obey God’s rules, but he does not
expect us to do it alone. He died so the
Holy Spirit could come and help us keep God’s law. Jesus said, “I have said all these to you to
keep you from falling away. They will
put you out of the synagogues. Indeed,
the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to
God. And they will do these things
because they have not known the Father, nor me.
But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may
remember that I told them to you. I did
not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and
none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these
things to you, sorrow ahs filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go
away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I
will send him to you. And when he comes,
he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe
in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see
me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged”
(John 16:1-11, ESV).
There are still people who, despite the promptings of the
Holy Spirit, do not keep his rules. Do
you? There was a time in my life when I
didn’t. As a late teen and young adult,
I strayed far from God’s law. However,
like the prodigal son, I returned to the teachings of God that I had received
in my youth. When I was reaping the
penalties of my disobedience, returning to God’s word offered me hope. The verses I had memorized as a child
returned to the forefront of my thoughts as the Holy Spirit spoke them to me.
We are expected to repent of our sins. I repented of my sins, and was forgiven. The same Pilate who sentenced Jesus to death,
earlier, had some of the Galilean Jew’s blood “mingled with their sacrifices”
(Luke 13:1, ESV). Jesus said, “Do you
think that these Galileans were worse sinners than other Galileans, because they
suffered in this way? No, I tell you,
but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam
fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the
others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will
all likewise perish” (Luke 13:2-5, ESV).
To God, sin is sin is sin. John the Baptist taught us to repent of our
sins: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3: 2, ESV). There is no greater or lesser evil. James said, “For whoever keeps the whole law
but fails in one point his become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10,
ESV). Jesus said, “Do not think that I
have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them. For truly I say to
you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from
the Law until all is accomplished.
Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and
teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of
heaven” (Matthew 5:17-20, ESV).
As a child I was taught that we are saved by grace, as we
are, but no one told me that the law of God still stood despite grace. If I had understood that, I may not have
engaged in the sins that I engaged in when those temptations came. By my actions, I taught others that as a professing
Christian, it was okay to do those things.
Despite praying numerous times to receive Jesus, and actually being baptized
as a child and as adult more than once, I could tell there was no change in my
life, until recently. I wonder if God
waited to accept my prayer of salvation until after I was done disobeying his
laws, and only accepted when I was truly repentant. I had to get to the point of realizing that
my own efforts could not save me. My
attempt to live the “Christian life” by executing, on my own, a script for
“correct Christian behavior,” accomplished nothing. I had to come to God totally broken,
realizing that “for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9,
ESV). I had to realize what grace really
meant (and I am still learning)…”And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But
God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by
grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show
the immeasurable riches of this grace and kindness toward us in Jesus Christ”
(Ephesians 2:1-7, ESV).
God’s grace offers us a plan of redemption. Redemption is ransom for life. David said, “Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit”
(Psalms 49:7-9). A sinful life cannot
pay the ransom for another sinful life.
That is why God needed to come as Jesus, to live a sinless life and die
for our sins. Jesus said, “Truly, truly,
I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees
the Father doing. For what the Father
does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19, ESV). Jesus could see God, but no one else
could. John said, “No one has ever seen
God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John
1:18, ESV). We are justified by faith
that Jesus’ death was our ultimate penalty for sin. He was sinless, but could only do what he saw
God doing. We, who can’t see God, and
act sinfully, were justified in the death of Jesus, who could see God and acted
accordingly. Isaiah prophesied, “Out of
the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge
shall the righteous one, my
servant, make many to be accounted
righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11, ESV). The NIV translates the Hebrew as, “by his
knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their
iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11, NIV). By
faith in Jesus Christ, we are justified:
“Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through
him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured
into our hearths through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans
5:1-5, ESV).
Justification is a legal term that describes the instance
of our being justified by the death of Jesus Christ. John Bouvier (1856) defined justification (a
definition that still applies in court, today):
“The act by which a party accused shows and maintains a good and legal
reason in court, why he did the thing he is called upon to answer.” Our justification is thus: we were once governed by the flesh, but now
that we walk in the Spirit, which was given to us by Jesus, we are able to do
that which we were unable to accomplish in the flesh, namely obeying God’s
law.
But justification is not where the gift of God ends. Some teach that sanctification is the process
of being “set apart for God’s work and being conformed to the image of Christ”
(Slick, 2011, para. 3). Where
justification was a legal term used to describe the instance we were justified,
sanctification is taught to be the process by which we are made like
Jesus. I don’t disagree with that. However to some, “Sanctification is not
instantaneous because it is not the work of God alone. The justified person is actively involved in
submitting to God’s will, resisting sin, seeking holiness, and working to be
more godly” (Slick, 2011, para. 3).
However, that doesn’t align with scripture, and is too similar to a
works-based philosophy. When Paul spoke of
sanctification, t was usually in the past-tense, and refers to Christ’s work in
us, not our own. This verse in Romans should
make it clear: “For those whom he foreknew,
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called,
he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans
8:29-30). In his prayer to the church in
Thessalonica, he said, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you
completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, ESV). There isn’t any room for me in that picture,
now, is there?
I believe I may have progressed through life, not a
Christian, yet believing I was. I felt like
it was me who had to live the Christian life.
Instead, God is now living the Christian life through me. Where I was habitually suicidal, though a
professed Christian, I am now encountering no difficulties as God works in my
and through me to bring about his will in my life. I wonder how many people have spent their lives
as I have, but have never come to experience the “rest” of God as described by
the author of Hebrews:
“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still
stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach
it. For good news came to us just as to
them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not untied
by faith with those who listened. For we
who have believed ether that rest, as he has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath,
they hey shall not enter my rest’ although his works were finished from the foundation
of the world. For he has somewhere spoken
of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his
works.’ And again in this passage he said, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ Since therefore it remains for some to enter
i9t, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of
disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through ‘David
so long afterward, in those words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For
if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later
on. So then, there remains a Sabbath
rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested
from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:1-8, ESV).
I remember my pastor, Dr. Jim Shaddix, preaching on God’s
rest in his expository journey through Hebrews.
At the time, I asked him, specifically, why I had not felt this, “rest.” Pastor Jim, as did I, was operating out of
the assumption that I was a Christian.
He didn’t know why. After my first
suicide attempt with him as my pastor, he recommended I see Larry Loser, a
Discipleship Counselor with Exchanged Life Ministries. It wasn’t until after my second suicide
attempt that I decided to check Larry out.
It was during my praying “the Selfer’s Prayer, that I realized that I
most likely wasn’t true Christian. The
Selfer’s Prayer is for those who have already prayed to accept Jesus as their
Lord and Savior, but not allowing him to be Lord, attempted to live their Christian
life on their own accord. I prayed
it. Will you?
Dear Father,
Thank you for delivering me from life in Adam and placing
me in Christ Jesus. I confess that I
have been a selfer and a total failure in and of myself. I have been struggling to live the Christian
life out of my own resources. I admit that
I have been trying to get my needs met through people, achievements, and
possessions. I now give up on my self-sufficiency
and do hereby commit my life unconditionally into Your hands. I give up all my rights and expectations, and
give You permission to make me into the kind of person You want me to be. I believe Your Word and that I have been
crucified with Christ, and have been buried and raised with Him into newness of
life. I claim resurrection life as my
life. I have been raised into the
heavenly places and I believe that I now am seated at the right hand of the
Father. I choose as an act of my will to
claim that Christ is my life, my power, and my identity. I thank You that my identification with
Christ makes me totally acceptable, and that all my need is met by Christ
Jesus. I choose to believe these truths
regardless of my circumstances, and I trust You to make this real in my experience
in Your timing. I yield myself totally
to the indwelling Christ for obedience.
Do with me whatever You choose.
Glorify and manifest Your Son in my life.
In His Identity,
Cari Ross
Imagine heaven.
Imagine hell. Imagine living your
entire life thinking you were a saved Christian, only to end up facing hell for
eternity. Now imagine God intersecting with
your life in a way to show you how wrong you are. If I was not a Christian, I was a
hypocrite. I was someone acting like
someone I truly wasn’t. As my pastor,
Dr. Jim Shaddix, preached recently, the difference between a Christian and a
hypocrite is heaven and hell.
Do you consider yourself a Christian? If so, are you still attempting to live the Christian
life on your own accord, out of your own resources? If so, I beg you to examine yourself, and to
ask God if you truly are saved. If you
need to pray the prayer, above, substituting your name for mine, I strongly
urge you to do so.
References
Bouvier, J,. (1856). A Law Dictionary: Adapted to the constitution
and laws of the United States of America and the several states of the American
Union. Retrieved from http://www.constitution.org/bouv/bouvier_j.htm
on September 9, 2011.
Merriam-Webster, Inc. (2011). Incarnation.
Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incarnation
on September 9, 2011.
Slick, M. J. (2011).
Justification and sanctification:
What is the difference? Retrieved
from http://carm.org/justification-and-sanctification
on September 9, 2011.
