A QUESTION THAT BEGS AN ANSWER.

March, 2009

When you die …., will you go to heaven?
This question was asked of a devout Christian recenly.
The person answered that question with: “I do not know”.
What gives a Christian, a child of God, assurance of salvation, any time, every time, all the time, even when the time of departure arrives?

For many it is one thing to believe that our sins are forgiven, it is often quite another to be assured that their God will receive them into his heavenly realms at the end of their earthly lives.
For others it is not difficult to believe that Jesus’ death on the cross covers everyone’s sins, except their own personal sins, those are too many and too great.
It is a life lived in anxiety and often dispair.
Why would this be? Why do so many children of God live their life in such near hopelessness and anxiety?
The answers to that question are many and varied and are different from one person to another. And yet these answers all have a common theme.
“I do not know if I am worthy”.
“How do I know that I will be counted with the sheep of Matt. 25, but I do not think that I will be”.
“I do not think that I did enough for God”.

What all these answers have in common is that the people who gave these answers have their focus on themselves and their own Christian performance.
Their focus is constantly on what we are supposed to do, what we actually do, what we have done (and failed to do) and they just know that all of it is insufficient in the eyes of God.
They know that a judgmentday is coming and that makes many a Christian cringe with fear.
All this makes some put even more frantic effort in their service for God and it robs them of rest and peace, because you never get to know when you have done enough.
It leaves a person tired, unfulfilled and empty, just the opposite of what the Christian life was supposed to bring.

For some this tale of desillusionment and frustration leads them to cry out to God: “THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY!”
For them the Lord God has prepared a better way. A new way of living in fact.
It is a way of living that is not about doing, it is not about me and my level of performance for God.
It is not about doing, it is about believing. Believing what the Bible says about Jesus.
Believing, unconditionally accepting what God tells us about his Son Jesus.
Like, John 5:24, “He that hears my word and BELIEVES on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but has passed from death unto life”.
Or I John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that BELIEVE on the Name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life ……”.
The Christian life is ALL about what Jesus Christ has done and NOT at all what we have done or do.
Jesus gave believers the gift of righteousness, right (clean, pure and holy) relationship with our God and Father and that is enough, it is sufficient for time and eternity.
And all that despite some sins and sinful habits that still cling to us.
This new way of living also means that we may offer these sins to our Father in confession and (again) his Word tells us in I John 1:9 that he is faithful to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
Also the Holy Spirit will make us aware of any lingering unrighteousness, so that again we may apply I John 1:9 to that situation.
This new way of living will not necessarily be a walk in the park, the transformation that the Holy Spirit accomplishes as we yield ourselves to the Lord in all things is often painfull. Letting go of our former independent, self-sufficient way of living is something we would avoid, but that is the way our Father would conform us to the image of his Son Jesus Christ.
In his hour of greatest fear and agony he said: “Father, not my desires, but your will ……
But no matter how great the storms of this new life, we will have peace in the midst of these storms, because we trust, we know who is at the helm and he will safely direct this ship through stormy waters to a safe shore.
When all this becomes established in our thinking, then the good works will follow.
Not because we believe that we are commanded to do so.
No, now these works will be a result of the new nature that is ours in Jesus Christ our Lord.
These works will just come naturally, we’ll just do them.
Not for our own benefit, not for God, not to gain God’s favor, we’ll just do them.

When I die ……., will I go to heaven?
Most certainly, but not because I cleaned myself up or the things I have done for God.
No, it’s because of what Jesus did in obedience to his Father, of which I am a beneficiary.
His death and resurrection has provided a new way of living for me.
A life, not of working, but a life of resting, resting in the finished work of Jesus, my Savior, my Lord and my Life.



St.Thomas, March/’09. Simon VanderKooy.