Only One Life: Heaven or Hell?

According to Jesus, the most important of God’s commands is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength” (Mark 12:30NLT). God made us, he sustains us, and our response should be to love him – with everything we have. But none of us (at least I admit that I’m not) has lived like that. We are like what prophet Isaiah had prophesied: “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6). We live as if we are the centre of the universe, not God. The fact is that we want to be worship instead of worshipping God alone.

Jesus explains the reason that we’re like this: “For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22). We disregard God’s loving laws and we rebel against his rightful authority over our lives. For whatever reason, we don’t trust him to know what’s best for us, we ignore Him. We choose to live life as if we’re the king and queen, not God. This is what the Bible called – sin.

Because God is just, He will not let our sins go unpunished, and treating God as if He is not God (by ignoring His authority) is the most serious evil of all. The Bible is clear that sin results in death – and not just death here, but eternal death, which he describes as “hell”. Hell is a place where, for all eternity, people will be punished if they die still rebelling against their Creator. It will be a real place of conscious pain. As you had expected from the most loving man who ever lived, Jesus takes no pleasure in talking like this. The reason Jesus warns us about hell in most of His teachings is because he loves us and does not want us to go there.

You know what? You don’t have to go to hell.

God is also love. He does not give up on us (even though admittedly you and I always do). Instead, he sent his Son to rescue us by dying for us. There was nothing accidental about Jesus’ death. There was nothing pointless about it either. As he died, crying out: “My God, my God, why have you abandon me?” (Mark 15:34). Jesus was enduring the separation from God that each one of us deserves for our rebellion. He was enduring it on our behalf. He went through it so that we never have to, if only we will trust Him. That’s why Jesus said that he “must” die (Mark 8:31). Jesus died willingly so that we could be reconciled with our Creator. He died as our substitute, in our place, taking the punishment we deserve.

This is Love and Justice –
Jesus “was whipped so we could be healed” (Isaiah 53:5)

THINK BIG Think of how much God loves you.

START SMALL But that is not enough –
you are not merely spectator of this great event,
you must respond to His great love.

GO DEEP Would surrender your life to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
To cover your sin by the Blood of Jesus so that you can enjoy Him forever in Heaven?

Remember, you only have One Life… choose wisely…