HEAVEN OUR ASSURED DESTINATION

REFERENCE: John 3:6-8, 2Corinthians 1:18-22 (kjv)

⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

⁸ The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit

  John 3:6-8

                                     

¹⁸ But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

²⁰ For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

²¹ Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

²² Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

 2Corinthians 1:18-22

COMMENT

Salvation is the most important concept on earth. Salvation provides one of the human basic needs; the spiritual need which demands to understand what happens when we die. As long as we cannot obtain a satisfactory answer on what happens when we die, we live with worry. Until we get hold of salvation, the basic need will continue to cause uneasiness. All human beings have this need whether they understand or not. Whether atheist or agnostic, this need is human and basic. You have to find an answer one way or another.  

In John 3:3, Jesus had a discussion with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, wanted an answer to this notion of salvation. He was told that he must be born again and a detailed explanation was given. 

The process of accepting the Lord Jesus as your personal saviour is not complicated at all. The bible says it is by your heart you believe and by your mouth you confess that Jesus Christ is your saviour and there and then, you get born again. Romans 10:19. Your sins are cleansed and you are made the righteousness of God. Your nature is altered now that you are spiritually in Christ and he is in you. Romans 4:3.

You are made righteous: You don’t just become righteous. It takes the hand of God to make you like his son. It is not you who is righteous but Jesus who bought you at price. He died on the cross for you and then rose from the grave for you. If Christ was a book and in the book you placed an envelope, wherever the book goes, the envelope goes as well. It is as if the book and the envelope are one thing. That is how a born again Christian is attached to Jesus.

We cannot sin away our salvation and righteousness, unless we denounce the Lord Jesus Christ publicly. It must be carefully noted that we did not earn our salvation and righteousness by doing good things. It was Jesus, and remains only Jesus, who made us what we are, immediately we believed in him. Jesus has not changed and has not lost his status of righteousness. We are in him whether we have sinned or not. There is a major difference between a sinning righteous man and the man who sins because he a sinner by nature. Consider the case of Lot who is described as a righteous man in 2 Peter 7:6-8. The righteous sinner has the Holy Spirit urging him to stop sinning even when he is not willing to heed the advice. He is uncomfortable and will not enjoy the sin he is involved in. God may   sometimes allow suffering in him to make him change his evil ways. Sin will, in most cases, affect our relationships with fellow human beings especially the ones close to us, but will not at all make God change his mind about your salvation. You are still the righteousness of God because Christ Jesus has not changed, and it is only on his account that you are righteous.

1 John 2:1 says that Apostle John is writing to us so that we refrain from sinning but in case we sin, we have an advocate in heaven before God and he is righteous. His name is Jesus the one who is always righteous.

The only way we can forfeit our salvation, as I have said before, is by denouncing Jesus and Christianity. A group based in the US is currently helping people in denouncing Jesus and the Church.  On top of that, the organization issues certificates to stand as documentary evidence. They have made it a legal issue, and they are right.

As today’s scriptures indicate, God in his wisdom has made it difficult for us to denounce his son Jesus Christ. He is God and knows very well how stupid we are.

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Our sealed destination is heaven.