Heaven (2)

2020-12-02
1 Corinthians 15:55 NLT

How can we know that God has a place for us with Him in heaven? In John 14, Jesus said: ‘”Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am’ (v.1-3 NLT). Romans 6:23 says: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (NIV).

Because of sin, death became part of our world, but Jesus chose to die for all our sins and paid the price for us. That doesn’t mean we won’t experience death, but it does mean that if we accept God’s gift of salvation, we can take our place with Him in heaven.

As Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the criminals said to Him: ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42 NIV). Because of his faith and acceptance of who Jesus was, Jesus promised him: ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’ (v.43 NIV). We don’t know what crime he had committed, but it would have been a serious one. But his past didn’t matter – what mattered was that He repented and accepted Jesus. Because of Jesus’ victory over death, we can join in with saying ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ We can have confidence that, no matter what our past might be like, when we call out to God and accept salvation, He’ll have a pace for us and welcome us to heaven.

Jos 1-4; John 15:18-27; Ps 65; Prov 28:17-20