Quote Source – Jeff Hilles
A Biblical Christian worldview perspective – There are many who hope for a second chance at reaching Heaven after they’re dead. It is certainly appealing and, from a human perspective, a reasonable expectation from a loving God. However, if one believes God is communicating to us through the Bible, rather than believing in our own sense of justice or fairness, then it is incumbent on mankind to accept that a loving God is also going to judge us for those sins we have committed on this earth that have not been washed by the blood of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
Romans 3:20 – For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
We cannot earn our way to Heaven. Being a “good neighbor” is only half of Luke 10:27 and many other passages in Scripture.
Luke 10:27 – And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 – For 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.
Our first priority is to love God and to serve Him. It is the outpouring of that vertical love that allows us to express Godly kindness to our neighbors, in a horizontal form of love.
We each need to decide whether to accept Jesus Christ as both our Savior and as our Lord.
Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
And the only pathway to spend eternity with the Lord is through His Son.
John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Finally, and most importantly, our opportunity to become a disciple of Christ ends at our death.
Hebrews 9:27 – And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.
We can choose reject the clear teachings of God in Scripture, and expect an outcome based on our own moral judgements of right and wrong, good and bad, fairness and injustice. We can look to the church traditions of Catholicism in regards to purgatory and anonymous Christianity if we so choose. Regardless of whether God, in His free-will foreknowledge or His predestination of who will come to Him, from our perspective, as we look toward eternity, each of us will make a decision. It is a binary choice on this earth that will be adjudicated by the perfect Judge at our passing… Heaven or Hell.
Matthew 7:22-23 – On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Please Read/Respond to Comments – on Medium
