Over the years I have asked many people this important question. If you were to die today, would you go to heaven? The usual answers are: “I hope so,” “No,” and “Yes.” The follow up question helps me to know how to proceed in the conversation. “Why do you think that?” Some respond by saying that they feel that they are basically good people. Others say that they go to church or try not to hurt anyone. Those who have heard the gospel and understand it reply that they have put their faith in Jesus to save them. Some who say that they have believed in Jesus are not sure whether they will go to heaven. Does God want us to be sure, or does he hold us in suspense in order to motivate us to keep on the “straight and narrow?” This begs a larger question, can we be truly saved and then lose that salvation, or are we permanently saved once we are born again? If the former is true, then we cannot know for sure if we are going to heaven until our last breath is exhaled, even if we are believers. If the latter is correct, then perhaps our eternal destiny can be known while we still live and breathe here on earth.
In his first letter, John wrote that we can know for sure.
I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13 (NLT)
This verse hinges on the meaning of two words: believe and eternal.
Faith consists of at least four components: revelation, trust, allegiance, and obedience.
It is not mere mental assent to a set of doctrinal facts, as some suppose.
Faith is the result of an interaction in our hearts between the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
The words of God carry within them an explosive capability to release revelation and faith. The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and “sparks” a divine internal “explosion,” which results in our being able to “hear” or truly understand, receive, believe, and respond to what God says or what is written in the Bible. Some people call this interaction the “rhema” word of God, as differentiated from the written or logos word of God. The key thing I want us to grasp is that people can read or hear what is written in the Bible without any attendant revelation or faith. Unless the Spirit of God is at work in a heart that is open and receptive, God’s words fall on deaf ears.
For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ Matthew 13:15 (NLT)
When an open heart truly hears and believes God’s Word, a trust in God forms. This is because we begin to see or understand who God really is and what he has done for us and will do. Love for and loyalty to God follows, along with a developing obedience.
Real faith always produces obedience, even if it takes a while to develop. Faith without loyalty and obedience to God is not genuine faith. Probably it is mere mental assent or an emotional response without any substance. Jesus spoke of this in his parable of the sower and the seed.
The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. Luke 8:13 (NLT)
Since faith grows out of a revelation of who God truly is, faith results in our knowing God.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 (NASB)
This is a spiritual knowing. It is one thing to know about God and quite another to truly know him. It is akin to how a married couple comes to know one another after making their vows. Sex in marriage results in a deep “knowing” that establishes a strong emotional and spiritual bond and, when everything is working properly, children or “fruit.” Our knowing God is in the spirit as a result of our spirits and God’s becoming one (1Cor. 6:17), which allows us to commune with him and know him.
Knowing God produces spiritual fruit in our lives called the fruit of the spirit. Our fruit will also be new people coming into the kingdom of God as a result of our testimony.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. Romans 7:4 (ESV)
When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives when we believe, he bears witness with our spirits that we are God’s children.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:15-16 (ESV)
Now that we have explored the meaning of “believe,” let’s think about the word “eternal”. Its meaning is clear based on other teachings of Jesus. On many occasions, he taught his followers that those who believe in him will never die.
Simply put, having eternal life means we will never die, or as our Lord said in John Chapter Five, we have passed from death to life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24 (NASB)
This important verse also tells us that those of us who truly believe in him will never be condemned to death for our sins. Jesus already took our condemnation upon himself at the cross. A debt never has to be paid twice. As a result, we have already passed from the realm of death into eternal life.
Those who truly believe in Jesus already have eternal life and will never die.
Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” John 11:25-26 (NLT)
Even though our pre-resurrection bodies will eventually cease to function, since they are still part of the old order of things because of Adam’s sin, the spirit within us, the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) which has already been born into God’s kingdom, will never die. It cannot because it is united with God’s Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17) It has passed from death to life and from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son. (Colossians 1:13) We are now seated with Christ at God’s right hand. (Colossians 3:1-4) He is in us, and we are in him. (John 14:20) As children of God, we are part of the family of God forever. (John 8:35)
The Holy Spirit is God’s seal of ownership that he puts on all who belong to him.
And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Ephesians 1:13-14 (NLT)
God knows those who belong to him.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.” John 10:27-30 (NLT)
So do the angels and the demons.
Not only does the Spirit mark or seal us as God’s own possession, he is a type of down payment or earnest money guaranteeing that God will finish what he began in our lives.
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
When we are born again, we receive the first installment of our “great salvation.” This part of our salvation might be called justification and is based on Christ’s past finished work on the cross. After being born again, we begin a daily process of being transformed so that our thoughts, words, and actions come into greater conformity with what is already true in our spirits. Some call this sanctification. It is a process requiring fresh grace or help from God moment to moment. The last installment will happen at the resurrection when our Adamic bodies will be transformed into new spiritual bodies that will never die.
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 (NLT)
Ephesians 1:14 tells us that the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge to those who were purchased by God and who now belong to him.
God purchased us by using the precious blood of his Son. We no longer belong to ourselves.
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT)
To conclude, our wonderful salvation consists of three parts that work together to convince us that we indeed have been forgiven, saved, given eternal life, and belong to God.
For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree... 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself... 1 John 5:7,10 (ESV)
The blood is the price paid for our salvation. God the Father chose us from before the foundation of the world to be his children. (Ephesians 1:4-5) He sent his Son Jesus to die for our sins, shedding his precious blood in the process, which was the price paid to satisfy the wrath of God against our sins, provide forgiveness, allow Christ’s righteousness to be given to us in a great exchange, reconcile us to himself, give us eternal life, and make us his children.
The water refers to our declaration of faith and allegiance to Jesus our Lord which takes place at water baptism. God declared his love for us by sending his Son. (John 3:16) We declare our love for him by confessing him before men. This confession agrees with what God did for us through the blood of his Son.
The Spirit is God’s seal of ownership in our lives which inwardly testifies that we belong to him. He is the source of life and all blessings we have in Christ. He lives Christ’s life through us, something we could never accomplish on our own.
When we put our faith in Christ and his finished work, confess him before men, and receive the Spirit, these three things work together to convince us that we belong to God, have eternal life, and that God will indeed raise us from the dead as he promised.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 1 Peter 1:3-5 (NLT)
