The Gospel

by Derrick Echols II

This is a loaded question, but 1-10 (10 being the most confident), if you died right now how confident would you be that you would go to Heaven? 

Or how about this: If you were standing in front of God right now, and He asked you “why should I let you into Heaven?” what would be your response?

Most people would respond with the following:

  • I was a good person
  • I never lied
  • I went to church
  • Etc.

But the Bible tells us that people that believe that their own doings (going to church, being a pastor, etc.) will get them into Heaven, will in fact not make into Heaven

"22 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?’23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" - Matthew 7:22-23

I’m not tryna be weird, but the reason why I’m saying this is because when I first found this out I was completely shocked and genuinely scared.

With that being said, I want to share some Good News and assurance to whoever is reading this. Let's start with some clarifications.

God requires perfection in order to enter Heaven, and His definition of perfection is to be sinless. Unfortunately, the Bible tells us that we ALL have sinned, so we are unable to enter Heaven on our own (Romans 3:23).
So the question is, how do we enter Heaven then?
That’s where Jesus comes in. You see, God knows that we’re not be able to enter Heaven on our own, so He came to earth in human form as Jesus Christ. 
Now Jesus lived a perfect life: He never sinned once. He lived a sinless life, yet He was tortured and killed on the cross. People don’t realize this, but while Jesus was on that Cross, He went through ALL of Hell for every single person. Then, He rose from His death 3 days later to prove that He actually did take that penalty. He took that penalty of Hell for us so that we could have the opportunity to enter Heaven. 
But even then, we know that not everybody enters Heaven still, so what separates someone that's going to Hell and someone that’s going to Heaven?
Well God gives us 3 things that tells us we’re going to Heaven:
  1. You have to TRUST that Jesus died on the Cross for your sins and rose from His death three days later. But you can’t stop there, because James 2:19 says that even the demons and the devil believe this and shake and fear.
  2. Next, you have to TURN away from your sins. This is called (repentance). This is a really hard part, so the best way to do this is to follow this next step
  3. You have to let Jesus TAKEOVER your life. This means that Jesus decides what you will do from here on out. You will go to Jesus first before you do anything, and He will be the center of all of your plans
This is the true Gospel. Please truly understand it, and chase after it for yourself bro!
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” - Matthew 7:7

 

 

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