How can I know for sure I am going to heaven?

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Question: How can I know for sure I am going to heaven?


ATP: Before I answer that specifically, let me describe some ways that others have answered.

Some suggest that getting into heaven is a bit like passing a test. The only question involved is, “What kind of grading system does God use?” Here are the common grading systems people assume are God's standards:

1. Right minus wrong: Add up all that the right things I have done and subtract from that all the wrongs things I have done. If any of the good stuff is left over, I get into heaven.

2. The Curve: As long as I am better than most other people I get into heaven. Actual behavior doesn’t count. What counts is that I am not as bad as some people I know.

3. E is for Effort: Others are not comfortable with any measure of merit that might be involved in the first two, and so adopt the idea that God uses the “e-is for effort” grading system. For them it doesn’t matter what a person has done or which God has been believed in. What matters is whether or not a person is sincere and has made an effort.

4. Breathing: Group four doesn’t like any of the first three and suggests that God wouldn’t keep anyone out of heaven. For them all that matters is that a person has lived at all. This view says that if a person is breathing they will get into heaven.

You can see right away that there are problems with these theoretical grading systems.

First they can’t all be right at the same time. So even if one of them is right (and none is) the other three are wrong.

Second, in every class I have ever been in the teacher or professor chose the grading system, not the students. So we can believe whatever we like, but in the end God will choose the grading system, not us. A much as I enjoyed as a youngster watching Peter Pan with Mary Martin, and just last night the movie Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, "believing" isn't enough. Never has been.

God has chosen a percentage grading system. Believing in another grading system won't do us any good.

If a person is going to get into heaven on their own, God requires them to have lived a 100% perfectly sinless life. No sins of any kind allowed. Anybody out there qualify? No, I didn’t think so.

So then, how can we be sure that we are going to heaven if we are unable to get in on our own merit?

1 John 5:11-13, Romans 10:9, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9 and John 1:12 give us the answer. Let me quote a couple of these for you since you may not have a Bible handy.

Speaking of Jesus the Bible says:

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

1 John 5:11-13: And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.

Any person who has repented of their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ as their only hope for forgiveness and salvation, can know they are going to heaven. God sent his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross as a substitute for you and I. Through him, when we confess our sin to God and ask for his forgiveness through Christ, we are assured that our sins are washed away and that one day we will go to heaven.

If you have been hoping in some form of grading system that will allow you to get you into heaven on your own merit, you need to think again. The Bible teaches there is only one way heaven. And that is through Christ. Don’t put it off. Invite him into your life as your Savior today. You’ll never regret it.