Heaven or Hell

 Romans 3:21-31

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, mankind has been tainted by sin. The bad choices we make each day are merely symptoms of the bigger problem—our fleshly nature. But sin has no place in the pure and holy presence of God. As a result, Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death,” and there’s nothing we can do to change that. In other words, left to fend for ourselves, we’re doomed to eternal separation from God.

But the Father, in His amazing love for us, sent His only Son as the solution to our problem. Fully man and fully God, Jesus lived a perfect life and died on the cross for us. He took our sin and endured excruciating suffering and separation from the Father. He took our place and our punishment, dying a criminal’s death on the cross to save us. Three days later, He rose again, conquering sin and death.

Out of love, the Savior overcame our dreadful fate and offered us eternal life instead. This great salvation is available to all who believe that Christ is Lord, He died on the cross for our sin, and He rose from the grave. Don’t wait—put your trust in Jesus today.

My friends, please don’t dismiss this.  This is reality.  I think sometimes we decide to think, “Well, that doesn’t pertain to me, all in all, I’m a good person.”  Well, what makes you a good person?  Under whose standards?   The only standard that will matter when all of this comes to a close is the eternal God!  What’s His standard?  Holiness.   Have you ever lied?  Yes?  Then you have fallen short of His standard and the penalty is death.  Have you ever stolen?  Yes?  Then you have fallen short of His standard and the penalty is death.   A Holy God cannot partake in unholiness.  The beauty of the gospel though is with all this bad news there is good news.  That’s what gospel means.   The gospel of Jesus Christ.  God loved the world (that’s everyone, no one is excluded), that He gave us a way to be justified in His eyes, a way to be declared innocent even though we rightly deserve punishment for our sinfulness.  He gave His only Son.  Jesus Christ who is fully God and fully man enter our world.  Jesus has lived eternally.  He left the joy of heaven and entered the sin cursed world.  He lived among us, sharing our pains, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually.  He faced every one of our temptations.  He lived a sin less life for us.  He didn’t do it for bravado.  He was as much God as He was man.  At any point in time, He could have called angels and had a grandiose display of power, but He humbled Himself and used His power to heal, to teach, and to show us the main principle, that God loves us immensely and we are precious in His sight.  

He gave His Son though, to pay our debt.  God had to keep His word.  If He didn’t, He would be a liar and then no more holy.  He had decreed that the penalty of sin was death.  So, Jesus, being an innocent man, not deserving death, stood before His own Father and willingly took our penalty.  He stepped into the courtroom of God and declared before the Judge and basically said, take my life, not theirs.  He suffered the pain of death for us.   Not just physical death, He suffered the spiritual death of separation from God.  He felt the full wrath of a Holy God upon sin.   It was complete.  The sacrifice in it’s innocence was so pure, and so Holy, that it paid for all of sin.  It was that powerful.  The blood of Christ has redeemed all men.

The only thing He asks of us is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be born again.  Not just believe in Him as a person, or as a holy teacher, or even just to believe in Him as God.  The demons believe and know He is God.  It’s a deeper belief.  We must believe in our hearts that He is Lord.  Lord of our life, and because of that, we surrender our lives to Him.  We repent of our sin, realizing where we were.  Realizing that we were dead men walking.  Realizing the hopelessness, the pain, the stress, the anxiety, the horrible life that our sin gave us.  We come to the realization of how Great, how Holy, how Awesome is our God.  We bow before our King in Jesus Christ, thanking Him for redeeming us, and in believing that, we live a new life.  A new life in Him.  A new life realizing that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.  A new life realizing that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  A new life realizing that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.  A new life realizing that the commandments are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, strength, soul, and might and to love our neighbor as ourself.  A new life realizing the holiness and pure love of God.

This…..is…...real.

It’s not some made up story.  This is reality.  This isn’t something you have time on.  Your life can be gone tomorrow.   Heaven or Hell my friends?   Where will you spend eternity?