Can I Be Sure I’ll Get Into Heaven?
By Rick Warren
“Those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged.” John 5:24 (GNT)
Jesus’ death and resurrection release you from judgment.
Maybe you’ve imagined a day of judgment that goes something like this:
You’re standing outside the gates of heaven in a really long line. You’re slowly moving forward, one step at a time. As you get closer, you start to sweat and wonder, “Am I going to get in? Am I going to make it? Is God going to use a giant TV screen to show every foolish or wrong thing I’ve ever done? Will my every sin be exposed?”
I have Good News for you, promised by Jesus Christ himself: “Those who believe in the Son are not judged” (John 3:18 GNT).
Or, as he says it later in the book of John: “Those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged” (John 5:24 GNT).
Is that good news? Oh, yeah!
I have a friend named Buddy who said that, when he was a little kid, his Sunday school teacher taught him that God was sitting in heaven, writing down every bad thing that Buddy ever did. She actually made the class sing a song every week that went, “My Lord is writing all the time. Writing, writing, writing all the time.” Buddy said, “It scared me. I just thought, ‘I’m never going to make it to heaven. My list is getting longer and longer.’”
Is that the way God treats you when you come to him and put your faith in Christ? No! In fact, God is erasing, erasing, erasing all the time. Forgiving, forgiving, forgiving all the time. He’s sitting in heaven, hitting the “delete” button.
Why? Because the Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8 NIV) and love “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5 NIV). If you put your trust in the love of Jesus Christ, your sins are wiped out.
You can count on God to keep his promise: “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NLT).
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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