Heaven without… us, you. Not a thought to contemplate. The choice of your ultimate residence is yours. Yours alone. And you do need to decide – it is not avoidable! If heaven is your choice, do you know the requirements to make heaven your home? Do it on your own…? Not even remotely possible. You can only attain heaven through Jesus.
What do you need to believe about Jesus? You need to believe that He was and still is, that He was fully man fully God. According to Dr. Roger Congdon there are over 21 reasons Jesus came, among them:
1. He came to fulfill prophecy.
“I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
“Christ has become a servant . . . to confirm the promises given to the
fathers” (Romans 15:8).
2. He came to seek and save the lost.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost”
(Luke 19:10).
“For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11).
3. He came to give His life as a ransom.
“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give
His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28).
4. He came that men might have life more abundant.
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
5. He came to reveal the Father.
“Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the
Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).
“Jesus said to him, ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father’” (John 14:9).
6. He came to do the will of God.
“Then He added, ‘Look, I have come to do Your will’” (Hebrews 10:9).
7. He came to preach.
“But He said to them, ‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities
also, for I was sent for this purpose’” (Luke 4:43).
8. He came to bear witness to the truth.
“For this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is
of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37).
9. He came to save sinners.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Timothy 1:15).
10. He came to bear our sins.
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” (I Peter 2:24).
“Christ . . . having been offered once to bear the sins of many”
(Hebrews 9:28).
11. He came to provide a pattern of holy living for Christians.
“Since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow
in His steps” (I Peter 2:21).
“Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).
This scratches the surface. My point is that none of us gets a free ride, that each of us must face the question of where we will spend eternity… and with whom. We can ‘wait till the last moment’ but since we don’t know when that is, we play with fire in waiting. And waiting… why? We can have a rich and abundant life now as well as in the world to come. Why wait to begin our process of becoming all that we can be. Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), so He sent the Holy Spirit to help us.
At some point in our lives we must face the ultimate question – who is Jesus? Then we must decide if we will follow Him or not. This answer determines where we will live forever.
