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THE
REALITY OF HELL
Many
people who are convinced that there is a heaven, are unwilling to believe that there
is also a hell, yet it is Jesus Christ Who speaks as emphatically of the one as He
does of the other. In Mark 9:43-48, for
example, three times over He describes hell as a dreadful place of unquenchable fire,
so that refusal to believe in the existence of hell is tantamount to saying that He
is a liar. In Romans 3:4 however, it is
written, “Let God (and Jesus Christ is God) be true, but every man a liar.”
In other words, if what I believe makes untruthful what God has said, then it
is I who am the liar.
In
addition to describing its terrible reality, Christ also mentions three alternatives
that would be better than going to hell: the loss of a hand, a foot, or an eye.
The language of course is figurative. Since
these bodily members are involved in the activity of my life, the warning is that if
that activity is contrary to God’s will, it is sin, and will bring me eventually
into hell, and the only way to escape that fate is to cease that activity.
But
that seems to teach that all I have to do to escape hell, and enter heaven, is to
reform my life - a conclusion accepted by many, but that Scripture declares to be
wrong. “There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
Moral reformation seems the answer to the problem, but it has
two major flaws (1) it does nothing about the sins of the past, (2) it requires me to
live a perfect life from that moment onward, because one failure
condemns me, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
To
stop the activity that condemns me, requires something far more drastic than mere
moral reformation. It requires me to
die! You see, not only does reformation
fail to deal with past sins, but it fails to take account of the evil nature that
produced sin in the first instance, and that will continue to produce it even after
reformation. No one, even after the most dramatic moral reformation, has ever
been able to live a sinless life. He who
thinks otherwise fails to understand that with God even “the thought of foolishness
is sin” (Proverbs 24:9), and to entertain even a sinful thought is,
in God’s sight, the same as having committed the sin, “For as he thinketh in his
heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7), and “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
God’s
way to be saved from hell and fitted for heaven enables me to die, and yet continue
living! How?
The first step is to admit that I am a sinner, and therefore fit
only for hell. The next is to believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ loved me enough to come down to earth, make Himself
accountable for my sins, and go to Calvary to die on the cross as my Substitute, as
it is written, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John
3:16). In response to that faith, God pardons all my sin,
not just the sins of the past, but all the sins I will ever commit, “He that
believeth on him is not condemned ....” (John 3:18), and He imputes Christ’s
death to me, i.e., He counts it as though I had died on that cross, “I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ....”
(Galatians 2:20).
But
more, He then deals with me as a new man who has been resurrected, and
who now possesses a new life, a new nature, the life and nature of Jesus Christ
Himself, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17); and just as the
nature with which I was born could never produce anything except sin, neither can
that new nature, received by faith, ever produce anything except righteousness.
Faith
in Jesus Christ as the Substitute Who died in my place, saves me from hell and fits
me for heaven. Lack of that faith
excludes me from heaven, and takes me first into hell, and then at the resurrection
of death (John 5:29), into the eternal torment of the lake of fire, “Whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation
20:15). The only names in that book of
life are those of believers. Is your
name written there?
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THE
BOOK OF LIFE
...contains
the names of those qualified to enter heaven. All
others will suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire Re 20:15.
Since therefore the eternal fate of your soul depends on whether your name is
in that book, wouldn’t it be wise to know whether your name is written there?
If
you know the moment when you were born again, Jn 3:3,7, it is in that book; if not,
you will never enter heaven. But how is
one born again? Admit that you’re a
sinner without any righteousness; believe that Christ loved you enough to die in your
place for your sins, and that in response to that faith, God pardons all your sin,
and will receive you into heaven. But
don’t confuse church membership, confirmation, baptism, morality, etc., with the
new birth. They aren’t! And don’t delude yourself that you’ve always believed.
No one has. Belief in the
historicity of Christ is only part of saving faith, but it alone will save no one.
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AFTER
THIS – JUDGMENT
God
warns that judgment follows death, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment” Heb 9:27. That
judgment, however, is not to decide whether you will enter heaven or hell, but to
determine the degree of reward to be enjoyed eternally by the believer in heaven, or the degree of torment to
be endured eternally by the unbeliever in the lake of fire.
The decision whether to enter heaven or hell is made by each man here on
earth, the new birth discussed in John 3:3,7 guaranteeing heaven; and the natural
birth, hell. Have you been born again? If
you die without that new birth you will be first in hell, and then, following the
judgment of the great white throne, Rev 20:15, in eternal torment in the lake of
fire.
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A
common misconception relative to man’s spiritual state is the belief that we become
sinners by committing sins. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. We commit sins because we are sinners by birth, the sinful
nature producing those sins having been inherited from our first father Adam.
It is because of Adam’s disobedience that we are sinners (Romans 5:19),
condemned to eternal torment, first in hell, and then eternally in the lake of fire
(Revelation 20:15); and invariably the response to this truth is to protest that it
is grossly unfair of God to impute to me guilt incurred by the disobedience of
another.
Before
charging God with injustice however, we have another factor to consider.
While we have no choice as to how we came into this world, the Gospel
offers us a choice as to how we leave it, for in the Gospel we are presented with
another Representative, Jesus Christ, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45); and while
we had no choice as to our association with the first Adam, we do have a choice as to
whether to continue that association, or to form another with the last Adam
(Matthew 11:28; John 5:40).
As
the first association was formed by a natural birth over which I had no control, the
new association is formed by a spiritual birth over which I do have control, that new
birth, in fact, being impossible apart from my choice.
As death came in by the disobedience of the first Adam, the power of death has
been annulled by the obedience of the last Adam, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians
15:21-22); and as the first man’s disobedience placed me under the power of death,
my own obedience to God’s command to trust Christ as Savior will deliver me from
that power.
But
of what does this saving obedience consist? To
whom or what must I be obedient? Its very simplicity causes human intelligence to reject it as being
too easy, and to insist that we ourselves must do something.
Faith however, believes the Word of God, and obeys the command of the
Gospel to believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross it was in my place, as
my Representative (Romans 5:6-8). Faith believes the promise of the Gospel which
is that in response to that faith, God pardons every sin (past, present, and future),
bestows eternal life, and gives the assurance that the end of earthly life will
introduce the soul of the believer to the eternal enjoyment of heaven rather than the
eternal torment of hell and the lake of fire (John 3:16-18, 36). That act of faith constitutes the new spiritual
birth apart from which, Jesus Christ warns, a man “cannot see (enter) the kingdom
of God” The warning of the Gospel
is that the man who hasn’t had that new spiritual birth, and who is therefore unfit
to enter heaven, must first enter hell, and then eternally the lake of fire
(Revelation 20:15).
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THAT
SECOND BIRTH
In
John chapter 3 the Lord Jesus Christ warns repeatedly that apart from a second (a
spiritual) birth men cannot enter heaven, and must therefore first enter hell, and
then eventually and for all eternity, the lake of fire (Revelation 20:19).
Yet if you were to ask a thousand people who claim to be going to heaven
whether they’ve ever had that second birth, it’s doubtful if you’d find one who
would say Yes. In fact the odds are
against your finding one person who’d know what you were talking about.
Why
are so many people (many of them faithful church members) completely ignorant of the
need of this spiritual birth which alone can save them from hell and fit them for
heaven? One obvious reason is that most
preachers are afraid to teach this truth, for you can’t tell a man he needs a
spiritual birth without also telling him the reason - without it he’s going to
hell.
People
like to hear what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear, and that’s
exactly what most sermons consist of: pleasing platitudes that will offend no one.
The preacher who simply invites people to join a church, and do the best they
can, will almost invariably have a bigger congregation than the one who presents the
unvarnished truth that men are sinners who need to repent and be “born again” by
believing that when Jesus Christ died on the cross it was as their Representative, so
that there might be made available to them a full pardon for all their sins, and
God’s free gift of eternal life.
Outweighing
the risk of offending you is (1) the risk of offending Christ if I fail to present
the Scriptural Gospel, and (2) the distress of a guilty conscience if I fail to warn
you of the absolute imperative of that second birth.
Here, then, is what you need to know to bring about that birth.
You must first be willing to accept God’s indictment that you are included
when He declares that “There is none righteous, no, not one .... there is none that
doeth good .... For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:10-23). Next, you must be willing to
believe what Christ declared to the Jewish ruler Nicodemus, “God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The belief however, must be personal, not general.
To believe that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, will save no one.
The only belief that saves is that which expresses itself in the personal
confession “I believe that He died for ME.”
It is that personal confession of faith in Christ as Savior which constitutes
the second birth, saving the soul from hell and fitting it for heaven.
The
eternal remorse of those who die without having had that spiritual birth, will be
that all of those sins for which they must suffer eternal torment would have been
forgiven in response to that simple act of faith.
I conclude this message with the prayer that no one who reads it may every
experience that remorse, for once your soul goes from time into eternity there is no
remedy.
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HEAVEN
AND HELL
Many
people who believe firmly in heaven refuse to believe in hell, yet the same Bible
which assures us that there is a heaven, tells us with equal clarity that there is
also a hell. It tells us moreover that
heaven is located above the northern sky, see Psalm 75:6-7; Isaiah 14:13; and that
hell is in the bowels of the earth, Ephesians 4:9.
(Before Christ’s resurrection paradise was also in the bowels of the earth,
but separated from the place of torment by a great gulf, Luke 16:26.
Since His resurrection it has been located in heaven).
Another
peculiar feature of what is generally believed is that most people will go to heaven,
and only a very few to hell. But again
it is the Bible which refutes that view, and declares the very opposite, Christ
Himself warning, “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: because narrow is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Yet
another view contradicted by the Bible is how men enter heaven or hell.
The average man will tell you that you’ll enter heaven if you do enough
good; and hell, if you do enough bad, though I have yet to meet anyone who can tell
me how much good or bad must be done in order to enter either place.
The Bible’s answer is very different. It
declares that all I have to do in order to enter hell is to remain as I am, for the
fact of my having been born is all I need to take me there since we are all
born sinners; and that all I have to do in order to enter heaven is to have been born
again (John 3:3,5,7).
The
Bible, in fact, teaches that it isn’t our sins that condemn us and fit us for hell,
but rather, our refusal to have those sins forgiven and put away God’s way, note
the repeated emphasis upon the need to simply believe, “For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life …. He that believeth on Him is
not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God …. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:16,18,36).
Salvation
from hell, and fitness to enter heaven are God’s free gift bestowed in
response to belief in Jesus Christ as Savior. It
is refusal to accept that gift that keeps us condemned and moving daily nearer to
hell. I may join a church, be baptized,
take ommunion, pray, read the Bible, live a good life, give generously, etc., but
none of these will make atonement for my sin nor give me a new nature – and I need
both in order to enter heaven. Without
these I’m going to hell no matter how good the life I live.
How,
then, may this essential gift be obtained? Very simply.
The moment I believe that Christ took my place and died for me as though He
were the sinner, I’m forgiven, and receive a new nature.
“Impossible,”
you say, “it’s too easy.” Easy,
yes; impossible, no. That’s God’s
way to heaven, and there is no other. I
either accept His gift through faith in Christ, and fit myself for heaven; or I
refuse that gift by refusing to believe that Christ died for me, and continue on my
way to hell.
In
regard to what men think as to how to escape hell and enter heaven, God warns,
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the
ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Jesus Christ said, “I am the way ….” (John 14:6).
There is no other!
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SAVED
THROUGH FAITH
Almost
two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians living in the
city of Ephesus, and said, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of (good) works, lest any man should boast”
(Ephesians 2:8-9).
Do
you know what that verse means? Let’s
examine it for a moment.
Grace
and mercy are often viewed as being the same thing, but they aren’t, for mercy is
simply the withholding of deserved punishment, but grace goes far beyond mercy: it
bestows undeserved blessing. It is by
God’s grace that sinners are saved when they are willing to admit that they are
sinners, and to believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross it was in
their place, for their sins.
“...
and that not of yourselves.” There is
absolutely nothing we can do to qualify for God’s pardon except to believe that
Christ has died for us. This is
emphasized in the next phrase, “... it is the gift of God,” and if
you still have any idea that salvation can be earned, Romans 6:23 declares, “The
wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Again,
many people believe that living a good life, doing the best they can, is what
qualifies men and women to enter heaven, but the next part of our verse warns, “...
not of (good) works, lest any man should boast.”
There will be no one in heaven able to boast that he got there by means of his
own good living. Those in heaven will be there as a result of Christ’s perfect
life, and the giving up of that life at Calvary as the only means of making atonement
for the sins of all who trust Him as Savior.
Because
Christ loved you He gave His own perfect life in exchange for your imperfect one, so
that God, without requiring anything from you and me, except faith to believe that
fact, can offer His free gift of eternal life.
Will
you accept God’s free gift? Perhaps
you’re saying, “I’d like to, but I don’t know how.” Let’s go back to our verse, “By grace (God’s giving what we
don’t deserve: pardon for all our sins, and His gift of eternal life) are ye saved through
faith.” Notice that it isn’t
“through faith plus church membership, or plus good living, or plus generous
giving, or plus Bible reading, or plus anything.” It is “By grace are ye saved through faith, plus nothing.”
To add “plus anything” is to deny the all sufficiency of
Christ’s death, and to make God a liar. He
who will not be saved by faith alone cannot be saved at all.
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WHAT’S
WRONG WITH YOUR LIFE?
If
someone were to ask you this question you’d probably say, “There’s nothing
wrong with it,” but if you’re honest you’d admit deep down inside, “Yes,
something is wrong, but I don’t know exactly what it is.
There is lacking in my life some element that I can’t define.”
That missing element however, is preventing you from living a full, abundant,
happy, peaceful life, and while you can’t define it, you’re pretty sure it has
something to do with not having enough money, education or health; not having a
better job, home or car, etc., You
think, “If I just had a little more of these I’d be happy.”
But
would you? Some of the most unhappy
people on earth lack neither wealth nor
health; but, strangely, there are some who lack both, and yet are supremely happy.
You
see, that missing element is far more basic than either health or wealth. It’s
an essential part of your being that’s wrong.
Take
a pad and pencil and write down what you think you are.
Obviously there is the physical you.
Then there is the part of you that is mental, the part that thinks and
reasons and makes decisions, etc. And
you’re capable of loving and hating, so there is a part of you that is emotional. And there you have on paper the three parts that are the complete
you. It is of little significance
however, since the description fits every person on the face of the earth!
But it assumes a very unflattering significance when you stop to consider that
the same description also fits your dog or cat, or any other animal!
Animals obviously have a physical component; and they have, just as obviously,
also a mental component; and no one will deny that animals also have an emotional
element to their make-up: they too can love and hate.
There
is one element missing from our list however - the part that animals do not have.
There is a part of you that is spiritual!
It is the part that gives you the consciousness of God; the part that impels
you to worship; that constitutes what - to use a convenient term - is generally
called man’s religious life. No
animal possesses this faculty; yet no man lacks it.
No matter how primitive, no matter how sophisticated his society, man worships
something. (There is no such thing as an
atheist. The man who declares himself
such is simply verifying that he is consciously rebelling against what is inherent to
his spirit).
And
that is what’s wrong with your life, unless, of course, you have been born
again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
It
is impossible for you to achieve lasting happiness and peace through the mere
physical, mental and emotional parts of you, because you’re not simply a higher
form of animal: you’re a person, and your life will remain incomplete until your
spirit fulfills its proper function of bringing your whole life under God’s
control. Sin however, has rendered your
spirit incapable of functioning properly, so that if you are to know “peace which
passeth understanding” your sin must be dealt with, and that isn’t nearly as
difficult as many people believe. To
have your sins forgiven it is necessary only to be willing to admit that you are
a sinner without one shred of righteousness. (To
retain the idea that you have any righteousness is to make God a liar, and
therefore render it impossible for Him to put away your sin).
The
next step is to believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross it was as
your Substitute, bearing your sins, to die in your place.
And the final step is to believe that that belief or trust is all that is
needed to cleanse you from every sin, reconcile you to God, save you from hell, and
fit you for heaven, God Himself giving the assurance, “... whosoever believeth in
him (Jesus Christ) shall not perish, but have everlasting life .... He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God .... He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life ....” (John 3:16,18, 36).
That
act of faith infuses your spirit with the very life of God Himself, and enables it to
perform the function for which it was designed, that is, to control the physical,
mental and emotional parts of you, and make them obedient to God.
As that obedience begins so does your true peace and happiness.
Apart from that obedience you will never know peace and happiness, but worse -
you will never enter heaven, and since there are only two eternal destinations, it
means that at death you will enter hell, and then following the resurrection of
death, the terrible lake of fire as declared in Revelation 20 which describes that
awful event as “the second death,” and warns that all who enter that dreadful
lake will have to endure its torment for ever.
You
say, I don’t believe there is such a place. That’s
your prerogative. But what if you’re
wrong?
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THE
WAGES OF SIN
Romans
6:23 warns that, “The wages of sin is death,” and most people conclude that the
reference is to the physical death which all men die. Revelation 20:14 however, speaks of “the second death” as
being the ultimate wages of sin, and while physical death is a phenomenon familiar to
all of us, that second death is something about which most people lack, not only
knowledge, but also awareness.
Did
you, for example, know that there is a second death?
And what do you know about it? Nothing?
Since there is the very real danger of your dying this second death, don’t
you agree that it would be advisable to know something about it, and how to escape
it? Let’s take a minute to examine it,
but before doing so let’s note something about physical death that isn’t
generally known. Not all men will become
its victim. Scripture declares that
those who have trusted Christ as Savior, and are living at the moment of His return,
will be caught up to heaven without dying, so clearly physical death is not appointed
for all men. Nor is this second death.
It is possible to escape it.
But
what is this second death? It is the
event that will follow “the resurrection of damnation” spoken of in John 5:29.
(There are two resurrections as well as two deaths, see also John 5:29).
But what is “the resurrection of damnation”? It is the event that will occur between the dissolution of the
present earth and its replacement with a new one, see Revelation 21:1.
It will affect only those who have died physically without having trusted
Christ as Savior, and will involve the resurrection of the body from the earth, and
of the soul and spirit from hell (to which they will have been consigned at the
moment of physical death, see Revelation 20:12-13).
Its purpose will be to present them for judgment at the great white throne,
see Revelation 20:11, that judgment being to determine, not whether they may enter
heaven, but the degree of torment to be endured for ever in the lake of fire, see
Revelation 20:13-15. (As there are
degrees of reward for believers in heaven, see for example Lk 19:17-19, so are there
also degrees of punishment for unbelievers in the lake of fire, the most terrible
being that meted out to those who had heard the Gospel, but who refused to believe
it, see Hebrews 10:26-31).
The
“second death” doesn’t bring annihilation, but rather the consignment of body,
soul and spirit from that great white throne into the eternal torment of the lake of
fire. “This is the second death
(Revelation 20:14). But God has provided
a way of escape, for just as Romans 6:23 warns that the wages of sin is death, so
does it also assure us that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.” The only way to escape the
second death is to accept that gift, for those who do are assured that, “on such
the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6).
Since
such terrible consequences attend dying without having accepted God’s gift, and
since you don’t know the moment when death will overtake you, don’t you agree
that it is madness to postpone accepting that life-giving gift?
Why have you not accepted it? Is
it because you neither knew your need of it until now, nor do you now know how to
receive it; or are you without it because you don’t believe what is written in the
Bible: that there is a resurrection of life and another of damnation, a heaven for
believers and a lake of fire for unbelievers? What
if you’re wrong and that Bible you couldn’t be bothered reading proves to be
right, and you learn, too late, that your unbelief has made you the victim of the
second death and consigned you to the eternal torment of that terrible lake from
which there is no escape?
If
you do believe what the Bible says, and want to receive God’s gift of
eternal life, but don’t know how, then read what is also written in the Bible.
“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life .... He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God .... He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” John 3:16, 18 and 36).
To
escape the second death and the lake of fire, it is only necessary to admit that you
are a sinner, and to believe that Jesus Christ loved you enough to die on the cross
in your place, and to believe God when He says in the verses quoted above, that He
bestows His gift of eternal life on all who have that faith.
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THE
WITNESS WHO DIED
Imagine
this scene. You are in a courtroom
observing a trial. The accused is on
trial for his life, and acquittal or condemnation depends on the testimony of one
witness. That witness is one who loves
the accused even though he knows him to be guilty as charged.
The
witness is sworn, and proceeds to testify. You
can hardly believe your ears. He has
always professed to love the accused, yet every word of his testimony seals the
defendant’s doom. He makes no attempt
to hide the facts, and every word he utters is absolute truth.
Finally
he steps down, and with him goes the defendant’s hope.
As you look at the wretched man in the dock, and see in his eyes the hopeless
despair with which he looks after the friend whose testimony has condemned him, you
think, “Surely if he really loved him he could have tempered his testimony with the
mention of some mitigating circumstance that might perhaps have induced the judge to
at least commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.”
A
hush falls over the court as the judge prepares to pronounce sentence.
The jury has returned a verdict of guilty, and amid a deathly stillness the
judge sentences the defendant to death. But
suddenly there is a stir, and you watch in wonder as the former witness steps
forward, and, looking toward his condemned friend in the dock, addresses the judge,
“I wish to become substitute for the condemned, and die in his place.”
You find it incredible that the one whose truthful testimony had condemned the
accused, should now be willing to die in his place, and you may perhaps recall what
is written in the Bible, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friend” (John 15:13).
This
anecdote of course is fiction, but, as happens sometimes, truth can be stranger than
fiction, and I’ve related the above to illustrate an actual analogy.
The
guilty defendant is the representative of all men in the sight of God, “For all
have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The witness represents Christ Who is described in Revelation 3:14 as “The
faithful and true witness.”
It
is written of Him that one reason for His coming to earth was to, “Bear witness to
the truth” (John 18:37), even though that witness must condemn men, for as noted
above, “All have sinned.” And yet
having given the testimony which proved men worthy of death, we find His love for
guilty men revealed, “In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8), “For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
Because
He has taken our guilty place, and died the death we should have died, we can be
cleared of all guilt, and made heirs, not of death and eternal torment, but of
blessing and eternal life. How?
By simply believing God when He says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31), for, “He that believeth on him is not condemned:
but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
The murderer, the adulterer, the thief, the liar, etc., can all be forgiven,
but not the unbeliever, because the unpardonable sin is for a man to die without
believing that the Lord Jesus Christ has died for him.
A
warning is necessary however relative to the matter of believing.
I may believe all the historical data recorded of Jesus Christ, but until I
put that data into the context of God’s declaration that I am a sinner on my way to
hell, I will remain condemned. The
belief or faith that saves is that which believes that when Christ died it was in my
place, for my sins.
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