Friend, I want to share with you one more thing that I have found. Like all the ones leading up to this, it is thrilling and life-altering, so I hope that you will consider this carefully! I have found eternal life! Like everything else I’ve shared with you, I earnestly want this for you!
First, I found that there is life after death. Our limited number of years on this earth is not all there is! While death is certain for all of us (Heb. 9:27), the promise of a continuing existence after death is just as certain. Jesus’ account of a rich man and a beggar in Luke 16:19-31 teaches this quite clearly. The resurrection of Christ guarantees our own resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20-23), after which we will live in another place forever (John 5:28-29).
Second, I found that there is going to be a judgment. There is something just as certain as death—“judgment” (Heb. 9:27). When Jesus returns at the end of the world, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). At that time, our eternal sentence will be announced (Matt. 25:31-46).
Third, I found that there are two (and only two) very real destinies in the eternal realm. The Bible teaches quite clearly that there is an eternal realm called “heaven” (1 Pet. 1:4) and an eternal realm called “hell” (Matt. 10:28). Scripture makes it plain that, while these two destinies are very different from each other (2 Thess. 1:7-9), both places will last forever and ever (Matt. 25:46), and there will be no passage or transference from one to the other (Luke 16:26).
Fourth, I found that obtaining eternal life is conditional. Not everyone is going to go heaven; in fact, Jesus said that only a “few” are on the path that leads to eternal “life” (Matt. 7:13-14). Jesus went on to say that only a person “who does the will of My Father in heaven” will “enter” into heaven (7:21). Therefore, one who does not do the Father’s will is promised an eternal separation from Him (7:23; 2 Thess. 1:9).
Friend, I want you to have eternal life! I cannot bear the thought of you spending eternity in any place other than the loving presence of God! I want you to find what I have found!
Have you found God? The Bible? The truth? Jesus? God’s love? Salvation “in Christ”? The church of Christ? Have you found eternal life, which is only “in Christ” (Rom. 6:23) and only for those “who obey Him” (Heb. 5:9)?
Friend, you are important to me! One day Jesus is going to return and take God’s children to heaven with Him! Are you ready for that day? Friend, please find His way today!