Have you done the single most important thing you can ever do on this earth? Have you trusted your immortal soul to Christ for His salvation? What act could possibly compare in importance to securing heaven for your soul? Souls never die. Bodies do; and, if the Lord does not return first, everyone alive today will certainly die. And after your last breath is drawn, it will not matter at all what’s in your bank account. Stocks you own or land you have will not matter. You may be “filthy rich” and live in the biggest house in town, but when you die, you will be as poor as the poorest beggar.
So just how does one qualify for heaven? How do you secure heaven as your soul’s destination? Jesus told us exactly how in John 14:6, where He tells us, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Our deceived society teaches that any belief system will do. That is a devil’s lie. The Apostle Paul tells us, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). This statement is confirmed in the Bible in several places. God’s Word makes it clear that all we need is faith in Christ and to call on His name. One must repent by changing his opinion of Christ and of himself. This includes acknowledgment that one is a sinner in need of a Savior and then calling on the Lord to be saved.
Lest anyone be deceived, nothing we can do can earn or deserve salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace through faith are you saved, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Some preachers have sinfully tried to add to God’s Word by requiring their congregations to abide by a set of rules and regulations. The best demonstration of salvation being a free and undeserved gift of God is the thief beside Jesus on the cross. He could not live for Christ; he could not witness for the Lord. He could not even be baptized, but he went to heaven. He demonstrated that all heaven requires of us is simple belief in Christ as the Son of God.
Some “Christians” have mistakenly thought that they could “get saved” and then live as they pleased. It is true that all sins a saved person ever committed or ever will commit are forgiven, but a Christian or believer is a “new creation” and no longer wants to live as he pleases. He now wants to please God, out of gratitude.
The scary thing is that no one knows the day or hour of his demise. The Bible assures us, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Judgment for believers is nothing to fear. We will be evaluated for heavenly rewards. But for unbelievers, judgment will condemn them, and they will be consigned to the Lake of Fire. This is a real place of eternal torment, so we need to act quickly to tell the Gospel message to those we love who have never trusted their souls to Christ.
The most important point is that death ends all opportunity to be saved and that no one knows when he will die and lose this opportunity forever.
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Ralph Fudge is the pastor of Big Ochlocknee Baptist Church in Coolidge, Ga., and has a Master’s degree in theology from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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