How to Get
to Heaven |
How does a person get to heaven?
If you ask most people this question, they might say something like, "If you do more good things than bad
things, God will probably let you into heaven."
That kind of thinking will reserve your place in hell. There is no amount of "good" that you can do that will pay for the sins that you have already committed.
Sins are the bad things that we do. Sin is when we disobey God's holy righteous laws. Criminals have to go to jail.
They don't commit murder, promise to be good, and then avoid punishment. They have to pay for what they did. The same thing applies to us as individuals.
We have sinned against God's law and we are the criminals--lying, stealing, killing, committing whoredom, etc. We have sinned and payment must be made for our crimes
--whether we go to hell and the lake of fire forever or whether we
repent of our sins and call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who paid the penalty of our sins with his own blood on the cross about 2,000 years ago.
He did not remain dead--he rose from the dead on the third day, was seen of over 500 brethren at once, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
You need FAITH in the blood of Jesus to get into heaven. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, God manifested in the flesh, WAS CRUCIFIED [nailed to the cross through his hands and his feet] FOR OUR SINS AS OUR SUBSTITUTE. In order to be saved and get into heaven, you must
- REPENT of your sins [have a change of mind to go in another direction]
- BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus Christ--his death, his burial, and his resurrection from the dead.
- OBEY the word of God, the Bible (Authorized Version of 1611. God's commandments are not grievous--thieves stop stealing, liars stop lying, etc.). This is different than just trying to be good enough, which we cannot do. To be saved, WE REPENT OF OUR OLD WAYS, BELIEVE IN JESUS, AND TRY TO OBEY HIS WORD. Then, as we strive to obey him, he helps us to obey him.
We are sinners. We sin when we do things that God's word, the Bible, says that we are not do. Every person has sinned.
People lie, disobey their parents, steal, kill, commit whoredom (being naked with people that they are not married to), are prideful, jealous, envious, covetous, boasters,
drunkards, traitors, and more.
There are no good deeds that you can do on your own that will erase the sins that you have committed. The Lord Jesus Christ SHED HIS BLOOD for your sins. He is perfect.
He specifically came to this earth as a man to die in your place. He is God manifested in the flesh. He came down here to save you from the GUILT of past sins and from the POWER of sin over your life.
In the Bible, God tells us what we need to do to have eternal life. He tells us how we can to get to heaven, how we can go there--and he wants us to make it.
He wants to know us and he wants us to make it into heaven. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (ref. 2 Peter 3:9).
You are about to read the most important information that you will ever read. It is called the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel is God's message to mankind. If you will yield to the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will be reconciled to God and you will escape eternal damnation in
hell and the lake of fire.
Besides all of this, you will have abudant life right now as you walk with the Creator of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this in spite of all the woes that the world will throw at you.
The Bible teaches that the ONLY way to have eternal life is through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
(John 3:36) He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I John 5:11 ...God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
I John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
To get into heaven, you have to REPENT of your sins and BELIEVE the gospel of Jesus Christ (ref. Mark 1:15).
You have to REPENT of your sins--that means turn from them and BELIEVE that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Having done these things, you will be born again and the Lord Jesus Christ will help you to walk uprightly.
You will read the word and follow the teachings of Jesus.
The word of God will wash your mind and your desires will actually change as you obey what you read.
The Bible says that nobody is good enough to get into heaven. We have all sinned. Each one of us has broken God's commandments--not one person is excepted.
You have personally lied and committed other sins.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
[L]et God be true, but every man a liar...(Romans 3:4)
The Bible teaches that when we are unsaved even our righteous acts are like filthy rags to God.
It does not matter how many good deeds that you do, you still cannot go to heaven based on your deeds.
The Bible teaches that your good deeds do not commend you to God in any way. Your good deeds do not remove the sins that you have committed. You have ignored God choosing to live life the way that YOU see fit.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade
as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)
According to the above verse, we still come up short even when we try to do good deeds. This is because we are not doing them under God's authority.
We do them because we think they are good. We ignore what God says.
"But I never killed anybody and I'm not a drug addict!" That may be so but you are still a spiritual criminal because you have been breaking God's righteous laws.
In fact, you have broken the greatest commandment in the Bible thereby making you as guilty as an harlot, a whoremonger, a killer, a thief, a drunkard, and a liar.
What is the greatest commandment?
Matthew 22:36-38 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart,
and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind.
THIS is the first and great commandment.
And what is love? Keeping God's commandments--
2 John 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.
(John 14:21) He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him.
John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my
words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear
is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
1 John 2:5 But whoso KEEPETH HIS WORD, in him verily is the love of God perfected: HEREBY know we that we are in him.
I John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
(1 John 2:3-4)
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
HE THAT SAITH, I KNOW HIM, AND KEEPETH NOT HIS COMMANDMENTS, IS A LIAR, and
the truth is not in him.
The unsaved, unregenerate man does not keep God's commandments. God's commandments are in the Bible. The unsaved man does whatever he feels like doing every day giving no heed to God's word. He is not obedient to God's word. He lives according to the ways he chooses to live.
Maybe the person reading this is what people call "religious" and they think that they love God. If you are not worshipping God according to his word, the Bible, he is not receiving your worship. This includes those that go to a church that teaches false doctrines--teachings that are not in the Bible. They that worship God must worship him in spirit and IN TRUTH (ref. John 4:24). And what is truth? Jesus said to the Father--
John 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
We have to worship God according to his word, not according to our own ideas or the ideas of others.
There is no amount of good deeds that you can do to get into heaven. The Bible teaches that if we could earn our way into heaven, then the Lord Jesus Christ died for nothing.
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Galatians 2:21)
But the Lord Jesus Christ did not die for nothing. Repenting of our sins and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way that we can make it into heaven.
Righteousness does NOT come by the law and good works and rituals prescribed by false religions like Catholicism,
Islam, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventism, Hinduism, etc.
We need Jesus to pay the price for our sins. We cannot do it. Righteousness comes by repenting of our sins and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and his blood that was shed to pay for our sins. God will not accept our made up religions and attempts to please him. THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO PLEASE GOD AND GET TO HEAVEN AND THAT IS THROUGH HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO SHED HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD TO PAY FOR OUR SINS. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY WAY TO GOD (ref. John 14:6). There is no other Saviour but Jesus. No one else can get us into heaven--not the pope, the Roman Catholic priest, Buddha, Muhammad, rabbis, et al. Only Jesus.
He is the prophesied Jewish Messiah, the lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Son of David.
God is holy. We are sinful. By his very nature, God cannot have fellowship with us sinners.
There is no amount of "good" that we can do to make up for our crimes against God. They must be punished. And the wages of sin is DEATH.
Somebody has to DIE to pay for sins against God. Oh, you'll die physically--sin requires that. But you've got a choice about that SECOND DEATH where a man goes to the lake of fire that burneth with fire
and brimstone....
We deserve the death penalty. This includes both physical death (the casket) and spiritual death (when the soul is cast into hellfire).
[T]he wages of sin is death...(Romans 6:23)
God does not want to remain your enemy and he does not want you to go to hell.
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die... (Ezekiel 33:11)
The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
In spite of man's wickedness and rebellion, God so loved us that he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for our sins.
(John 3:16-17) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Jesus came to save us from our sins-- "... and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people FROM their sins." (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus did not die so that you could keep on sinning and then go to heaven (this is an heresy that many churches teach, especially
antinomian and dispensationalist Baptist (dispensationalism is a confusing, heretical series of false doctrines)). The Lord Jesus Christ came to save you from both the GUILT and POWER of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was manifested TO DESTROY the works of the devil (I John 3:8)--THE LORD JESUS CHRIST CAME TO SAVE YOU AND CHANGE YOU AND TO MAKE YOU HOLY. When you are unsaved, sin has dominion over you. Sin is your boss and you cannot do anything BUT sin. You are justly under the wrath of a holy and just God. Murderers, thieves, fornicators, witches, sodomites, whores, liars, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, rebels, and all other spiritual lepers will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is not to put anybody down, before we got saved, we Christians were once the murders, thieves, whoremongers, etc.
We have to be born again into the kingdom of God. When we REPENT and BELIEVE in Jesus, we are born again and all things become new. A new life emerges and things change. We start reading the Bible and obeying it and the Lord Jesus helps us obey it more and more. Our life changes. Our desires literally change as we go forward in obeying the word of God.
The blood of Jesus is the propitiation and payment for our sins. The blood of Jesus took away the guilt of the sins which we have committed AND it has ushered us into a Father child relationship with the Lord God. Through the blood of Jesus, we are to serve sin no more, rather we serve righteousness. If you get saved and sin, you confess your sin and the Lord will forgive you, but you no longer walk in the sin lifestyle--
1 John 2:1 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:
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1 John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Again, the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus,
who is God, to die in our place so that we scoundrels can have eternal life. Remember that the wages of sin is death--that is why Jesus died in your place so that you can live. The Lord Jesus Christ was your substitutionary sacrifice--
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends." (John
15:13) How can you show more love than giving your very life for someone else's life? You cannot. And what is more, the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifested in the flesh, died for us WHEN WE WERE HIS ENEMIES! I mean we were vile, wicked, wretched, unclean, unholy, ungodly, prideful, sinful and spiritually leperous.
Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
The love of God for you was demonstrated on that cross 2,000 years ago when the Lord Jesus was
crucified for you. God is not hateful, he is loving and he is good to us. It is only blasphemers, hereticks, evil men, seducers, and sinners that speak wrongly of our great and loving LORD God. God gave us his only begotten Son even though we were dead in trespasses and sins. God quickens (makes alive) the dead. He is still quickening men, women, boys, and girls across the face of this whole earth who put their trust in Jesus--
Ephesians
2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience:
2:3 Among whom also we ALL had our conversation in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others.
2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;)
2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus:
2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in
his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God:
2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, came to this earth to (1) save you from the GUILT and POWER of your sins and (2) RECONCILE you unto God. Through faith in the blood of Jesus you will escape the wrath to come, have abundant life now, and heaven as your home. God will be your Father instead of your enemy--but ONLY through the blood of Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is the ONLY means appointed by God by which we can know God and be saved.
..the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (I John 1:7)
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD..
(Romans 6:23)
JESUS CHRIST ROSE FROM THE DEAD. After His death, our precious Lord's body laid in the grave three days, but praise be to God, it did not remain there. Death could not hold him back--it was not possible that he should be holden of it (Acts 2:24). Jesus Christ is the life (ref. John 14:6)
and God manifested in the flesh (ref. I Timothy 3:16). Death could not hold him. On the third day Jesus arose from the dead and was seen by over 500 people (ref. I Corinthians 15:6) before He went back to heaven.
Jesus Christ came to earth to give his own blood for your sins. That is what he came to do and he was and is the only one qualified to do it. His death was a one time sacrifice, never to be repeated. After he accomplished this tremendous feat, he rose from the dead just like he said he would:
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again... (John 10:17-18)
...Christ died for our sins...and he was buried, and...he rose again the third day... (I Corinthians 15:3-4)
Are you ready to repent of your sins? To repent means to forsake your evil ways and live God's way according to his word. Are you ready to listen finallly? All your life you've been your own authority concerning what is right and what is wrong. You've made your own decisions while ignoring what the Lord says in His holy word, the Bible. You've served yourself and not God. To repent means that you turn to GOD AND THE BIBLE AS YOUR AUTHORITY. It means you can say, "Lord, everything you say in the Bible is right. If my feelings contradict the Bible, I AM WRONG. Lord, I want to live under YOUR AUTHORITY, not my own. Help me, Jesus, to do right."
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men
every where to REPENT. (Acts
17:30)
...TURN TO GOD, AND DO
WORKS MEET FOR REPENTANCE. (Acts 26:20)
Repentance is not lip service. Are you prepared to live for the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus said this--
"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come
after me, cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:27)
Realize that you have lived under your own authority. You've lived the way that YOU have wanted to. You have lived without regard for God's precepts. Understand in your mind that you've lived in sin against God's word. Think it through and count the cost. Jesus made no promises that you will have an easy life. In fact, the Bible teaches that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Are you willing to live as one of the despised, saved, holy, overcoming, victorious ones? If so, come on to Jesus. Be determined that you want God to be your Father and not your enemy. Decide that you WANT the Lord and His ways. Satan and this world are doing nothing but kicking your hind parts all up and down the street. They will leave you destroyed and with your part in the lake that burneth with fire and
brimstone. God will lift you up if you submit yourself to him for his superintending care. And his holy child, Jesus, will be your all-powerful Lord, Saviour, protector, guide, and best friend you could ever have.
Friend, you have a choice to make,
- keep on pursuing Satan and the fleeting pleasures of sin; or,
- humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and let him lift you up into an upright life. God furnish you with at least one spiritual gift wherewith you can help further the kingdom of God. In due time, He will lift you up to places you never even knew existed. Your life will be changed at its
root if you heed to the word of God.
We do not know about our precious Lord Jesus through, the Roman Catholic "church", "the church fathers, the magisterium, the pope, councils, decrees, traditions, canon laws, the Quran, Muhammad, the Hadith, the Baptist statement of faith, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Ellen White, agnositicism, history books, the Watchtower Society, atheism, Joseph Smith, tv, the New World Testament, fake preachers, "Christian" Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Imam, Seventh Day Adventism, etc."
In the Bible, God testifies that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was buried; and that He rose from the dead on the third day. You must believe and confess this in order to be saved.
[I]f thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, THOU SHALT BE SAVED. (Romans 10:9)
If you are ready to save yourself from this untoward generation, if you are ready to reject what this wicked and perverse world has to offer, if you are ready to be safe and stay safe in God Almighty, if you want Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, if you want to be reconciled to your Creator, if you want to go to heaven, if you want to escape hell -- then put your faith in the only one who can do something about it! Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for you? Do you believe that He rose from the dead? Do you repent of your sins? Do you want to follow Jesus?
If so, REPENT of your sins and talk to the Lord in prayer in your own words right now. Ask God to forgive you of your sins and to help you to do what is right. BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus. CONFESS the Lord Jesus with your mouth. This is not a long, drawn out, hard process. Do you believe in the blood of Jesus? Do you want God to pass over you in the day of his wrath so that you are not cast into hell and the lake of fire with the wicked? Do you want to be saved?
You don't need a preacher in your presence in order to be saved, you have heard the gospel here. Do you BELIEVE it and want it? Are you ready to be under God's commands or do you want to keep on doing what you want to do? This decision is yours and your future depends on what choice you make. If you know that this is the truth, I counsel you to make your decision today because tomorrow is not promised to you. Not only that, people's hearts get hard when they keep on rejecting the truth. You don't want your heart to turn to stone to the gospel because if it does, you will go to hell. That I can guarantee you because the Bible says so. Hell is real notwithstanding the fake preachers and "theologians" and "doctors" that would tell you otherwise.
"But what if I have been really bad? Will God forgive me?" In these end times, people are being pumped fill of temptations and their sins are many. Some may feel like their sins are so bad or so many that they cannot be forgiven. But God is merciful. Please see our article,
"Will God forgive me?"
Some people don't know how to pray. Praying is just talking to the Lord. If you want to be saved, talk to Jesus about it. You don't have to repeat these words, but someone may say something like this--
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