Take up the book and read

By Aaron Swartzentruber

Greenleafton, MN

So here’s the question, “Where are you going when you die?” Another question is, “Can you know where you’ll go?” The answer is, yes, you can know.

In this article I’m mostly talking to people who believe that Jesus paid for their sin but they’re still working to gain favor with God and to have a “chance” of getting into Heaven. If Jesus paid for your sin, then you’re going to Heaven. If you’re still trying to earn your way into Heaven then you really don’t  trust that Jesus paid for your sin, right?

Some of you are scoffing at me right now about this. That’s fine. Well…not really. What I mean is I used to do the same thing. Even after God got my attention and showed me that I broke His law I scoffed at the “ridiculous” notion that someone can know for certain that they’re saved and going to Heaven. It’s because I was trying to pay for my sin. God says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) God won’t accept my poor pitiful payment. Why? Because my payment is like filthy rags to Him (Isaiah 64:6) and because everyone that gets to Heaven is going to give Him all the glory. Nobody will be able to strut through Heaven bragging about what they did to get there. Now I’m no longer working to get there, I’m resting in God’s grace to get me there through the payment that Christ made on the cross. Therefore, I can be sure that I’ll get there. And it is my prayer that you would be able to see that, too.

Salvation by faith plus works is of Satan. Because he doesn’t want you to have assurance of Heaven. And doesn’t it sound much more like Satan than God to say that if you do enough good things you “might” get to Heaven? If you “might” go to Heaven you also “might” go to Hell. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sit well with me. Eternity is at stake here! It sounds more like a cruel dictator than a loving God that would say, “I may send you to Hell, you just do your best and then I’ll decide on that day.” How can you stand the thought that you might spend eternity in Hell? How can you be ok with that? How can you be at peace, just doing the best that you know how and hoping for the best? Hoping for the best in the matter of Heaven or Hell is not alright, there is too much at stake! Wake up! Wake up! 1 John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may ‘know’ that ye have eternal life.” I beg you to read the Gospel of John and ask God to speak to you. How I want you to know that you can know!

The Pharisees in the Bible were a very strict religious group. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee (Acts 23:6). He called himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning righteousness, according to the law, he was blameless (Philippians 3:5-6). He must’ve been the president of the good ol’ boy club! Yet none of that gave him assurance of Heaven. In Phillippians 3:8-9 he counts all those things as loss, he even calls it dung. Dung is a term which I would rather not use a modern english equivelent of! Verse 9 — “and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

Assurance does not come by works, it comes by words. The Word of God, that is. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me ‘hath’ everlasting life, and ‘shall not’ come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24) I say thank you Lord for securing my eternal destiny! What a Savior! Until next time….