Life's Final Test

my precious family, 1987

"Let it be known to all of you and to all the people...that by the name of Jesus Chrsist...there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10,12)

In 1988, about two weeks before our timber company went belly up, I dreamed that the phone rang and a man's voice said, “Jill, build your faith. You’re going to need it.” So I started studying the Bible like I was preparing for finals – in a way, I guess I was preparing for life’s final test. Three very important truths that I’ve learned over the years are:

TRUTH #1 – Every person born physically is DEAD spiritually.

 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23)

“The wages of sin is DEATH…” (Rom. 6:23a)

“You were DEAD in your trespasses and sin.” (Eph. 2:1)

“For as in Adam all DIE…” (1 Cor. 15:22a)

TRUTH #2 – A DEAD man can’t help himself. SomeOne has to make a DEAD person ALIVE.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be BORN AGAIN to a LIVING hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the DEAD…If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed [made ALIVE] with perishable things like silver or gold…but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:3,17-19)

“For while we were still helpless [DEAD], at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)

“Therefore we are buried with Jesus by baptism into DEATH; so that as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of LIFE!” (Romans 6:4)

“Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ… there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10,12)

TRUTH  #3 – Only those ALIVE in intimate relationship with Jesus will enter heaven – His Kingdom - where Jesus Christ is the JUDGE of the LIVING and the DEAD.

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His Kingdom: preach the Word…For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Tim. 4:1-4)

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast our demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me.” (Matt. 7:21-23)

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting God who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, he is accursed.” (Gal. 1:6-8)

“Now I make known to you, the gospel… that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time.” (1 Cor. 15:1,3-5)

“If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord [Jesus] will be saved.’” (Romans 10:9-13)

Jesus isn’t one way to heaven; the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation that Jesus Christ truly is the ONLY way to eternal LIFE. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the LIFE; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  Therefore, Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world OR He was a liar.

Beloved, who do you say Jesus is?