The Key to Eternal Life
At a recent baptism service one of the candidates, when giving his testimony added, as a sideline,
“Of course, no-one can be certain they will go to heaven.”
This is a common misunderstanding but Jesus and his apostles would disagree with this view.
The apostle John wrote a letter about this very subject and concluded it with with the words:
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:11-13
He is saying that those who truly ‘believe’ and so follow and obey the Lord Jesus have already been given eternal life.
Many have prayed a prayer asking Jesus into their life and possibly have acted on this and publicly committed themselves to Jesus in baptism but are later plagued with doubts or other problems. So they pray again and again but still the questions remain,
“Did I feel sorry enough about my sins?”
“Since praying the prayer, have I followed Jesus closely enough?”
“I have sinned and am worried that I have forfeited eternal life.”
Such doubts come from our feelings which are fickle enough. The Bible however is clear that we are not saved by our feelings but by our dependance on Jesus Christ:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” Galatians 2:8-9
We are saved when we turn to Christ. It is faith alone that saves us. The evidence that we have been saved will be seen in the new way we live, we want to live lives that honour Jesus.
When I was at my primary school the headmaster, in the middle of winter, used to take the pupils down to a large lake in the school grounds to see it covered with ice. He used to tell us to stay at the side while he walked onto the ice to ensure it was strong enough. Then he would invite the senior class and subsequently more and more of us were invited to walk on the ice. Some were apprehensive and timidly stepped onto the ice whereas others were full of confidence and ran onto it. We had to have faith to step onto the ice but what prevented us from falling into the lake was the strength of the ice - our feelings had nothing to do with that.
Just as we had to step onto the ice, so our salvation depends on our committing ourselves to Christ. If we have genuinely asked him to save us and change us into the sort of person he wants then we are secure. The evidence of such a commitment will be the ongoing desire to live for and please Jesus. That desire comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. He is the proof we need. The presence of the Holy Spirit makes us want to live to please Jesus.
The apostle Paul wrote to people in the church in Rome, to assure them that because their priorities are no longer worldly, of the flesh, but their concern was to live for Jesus, then Jesus had saved them. We will all die because we live in a world tarnished by sin but, because we are in Jesus, we share his righteousness and it is on Jesus’ ticket that we will be admitted into God’s presence when we die.
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:9-10
All Christians fail and fall into sin but the difference faith makes is that we then return to Christ to be forgiven and sent out again to live for him. The Bible is clear,
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:8-9
Three examples
1. A lady who was dying of disseminated cancer committed her life to Christ when the gospel had been explained to her. She was given some Bible verses to meditate on which tell about the confidence those who have committed themselves to Jesus have, those who are in Christ. These verses were:
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
When we receive Jesus into our lives we are given the right to call ourselves children of God. We have been born again of God because we have invited God into our lives.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Nothing could be clearer, our security comes from our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, not from our feelings. Jesus has promised us:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
Anyone who listens to what Jesus says and commits themselves to follow him has eternal life. This means that when they face God at the great judgment Jesus will say that they are considered to be righteous because he has taken responsibility for their sin. What glorious news!
A few days later, after she was transferred to the local hospice, I went to visit her. She was holding firmly onto her Saviour even though she was sleepier from the drugs. We looked at Romans 8:1 which is another great verse on assurance.
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, . . . ”
To make this simpler to understand, I wrote her name on a piece of paper and placed it inside the Bible.
“Let this Bible represent the Lord Jesus and this piece of paper represent you. Because you are now ‘in Christ’, when you meet God he will not see your sins at all, he will see that you are in Christ and are therefore considered to have ‘his righteousness’. Furthermore Jesus is now in heaven and because you are in Christ he will take you to be with him there.”
The nurses told me that she later asked for them to read her the whole of Romans chapter 8. About two weeks later I had a phone call from her husband to say that she had just died. Apparently one of the last things she said to her husband was to ask him to become a Christian and made him promise to “go to the doctor’s church”. He did faithfully come and he later attended a Basics course when he also committed himself to Christ. Even at the last stage of her life her new faith in Jesus had led her to talk to others about him.
To enter heaven a person has to enter through the only door possible, Jesus himself. Jesus said to some Pharisees:
“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” Matthew 10:9
2. It was a young man’s twenty first birthday and his father gave him a small package. When he unwrapped this he found a key within. This key this seemed so insignificant. He then learned that it was the key to a car standing in the road. The key was the evidence of ownership.
Jesus said to Simon Peter after he had declared that Jesus was God’s Messiah,
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19
Heaven is a far more glorious prospect than a car! Peter’s acknowledgment that Jesus is God’s Messiah, and therefore his Lord, was the key to heaven. A personal faith in Jesus is the only key. This would be Peter’s message to the world. To receive Jesus is to have the key to eternal life. Those who reject Jesus’ rule will never be admitted to his heaven.
Belief in Jesus, faith in Jesus, commitment to Jesus, submission to Jesus are the same. They are the key to eternal life. If you have the key your have ownership.
3. What if there is no obvious difference after opening your life to Jesus? Many years ago, a short man called Mr Falconer was working as a missionary to the sailors at Port Chalmers in New Zealand. He had just finished a short service for the seamen, which was held in a large loft used to store the ship’s sails. A young sailor, Frank Bullen, stayed behind to talk. Frank explained that he did believe and had prayed a prayer of commitment to Jesus as his Saviour and Lord, but no obvious change had occurred. He felt no assurance that he had been accepted by God. Mr Falconer read him one of the important sayings of Jesus:
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
’Ah, I see how it is,’ exclaimed Mr Falconer, ’you are waiting for the witness of your feelings to the truth of him who is himself the Truth. You dare not take him at his word unless your feelings, which are subject to a thousand changes a day, corroborate it. You must believe him in spite of your feelings and act accordingly.’
Frank Bullen recorded many years later:
’In a moment the hidden mystery was made clear to me, and I said quietly, “I see, sir; it is the credibility of God against the witness of my feelings. Then I believe God!”
What is faith?
If you ask many people what faith is you will receive many different answers. The Bible is very clear that if a faith is just a commitment to a religion, a church or a denomination and its doctrines, it is not a saving faith. Saving faith is a commitment to follow and obey Jesus, and nothing else. Jesus describes himself as ‘the shepherd of the sheep’:
“. . . the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and he calls them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10:3-4
Pseudo-faith is everywhere and Jesus and his apostles constantly warned against this. Notice how all the verses on assurance, given above, focus on Jesus himself.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks of the pseudo-faith but that this will not save people. At the final judgment there will be gifted church leaders that Jesus will reject because that personal relationship with him is missing:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23
Accepting Christian doctrines without an over-riding personal relationship with the Lord Jesus will not save a person. The evidence of such a relationship is that we want to follow and obey Jesus. Paul starts his letter to the Romans with the phrase:
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ . . .” Romans 1:1
Paul goes on to say that his role is to bring people to trust and obey Jesus because he is truly the Son of God. The evidence of a saving faith is obedience:
“ . . . who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Romans 1:4-6
A Christian is a person who is personally ‘in Christ’. The terms “In Him” and “In Christ” are found 180 times in the New Testament and Paul uses them 143 times in his Epistles. The evidence that someone is ‘in Christ’ is that they obey him and live for him.
Significantly Paul ends this letter to the Romans by focussing again on who Jesus is and that the response God wants of each of us is the determination to obey him.
“Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith - to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Romans 16:25-27
The importance of assurance
When you’re in an airport, observe the difference between passengers who hold confirmed tickets and those who are on standby. The ones with confirmed tickets read newspapers, chat with their friends or sleep. The ones on standby hang around the ticket counter, pace restlessly up and down and look so worried. Assurance does affect how we live.
After the young John Wesley had been preaching for some time, some one said to him,
"Are you sure, Mr. Wesley, of your salvation?"
"Well," he answered, "Jesus Christ died for the whole world."
"Yes, we all believe that; but are you sure that you are saved?"
Wesley replied that he was sure that provision had been made for his salvation.
"But are you sure, Wesley, that you are saved?"
It went like an arrow to his heart, and he had no rest or power until that question was settled. Fortunately for us all it soon was and he went on to help change England and turn people back to Christ.
Many men and many women go on month after month, and year after year, without power, because they are not clear about their standing in Christ; they are not sure of their own footing for eternity.
Bishop Latimer once wrote to his colleague Bishop Ridley to say that ‘when he was settled and steadfast about his own salvation he was as bold as a lion, but if that hope became eclipsed he was fearful and afraid and was disqualified for service.’
Many are disqualified for service because they are continually doubting their own salvation. Sometimes it is a constant giving in to sin that causes this. The answer is to ask the Lord Jesus to help us defeat sin. Sin is a recurrent problem we all have, so repeated repentance is necessary for us all:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:8-9
In summary all Christians need to be certain of their relationship with Jesus as this will give us courage to go out to live and speak for Jesus..
BVP
