John 21:20-23: “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Him during the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is My will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.’ So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but “If it is My will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’” (ESV all emphasis is mine.)
Matthew 24:36, 44: “But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven nor the Son, but the Father only…. Therefore, you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
With each passing day, we are witnessing more and more “end of this age” prophecies being fulfilled. There are even pastors in some previously biblical churches that are preaching that it is not necessary to have Jesus as your Savior as there are “many ways” to Heaven.
Going to 2 Peter 3:3-4: “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’”
Paul states in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”
There is a definite “go along to get along” attitude, and all who truly proclaim Jesus as their Savior are being persecuted worldwide. And yes, this applies to America as well.
Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:2-5: “for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
All of these traits have been around ever since the first sin was committed in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, but not with the completeness and intensity as is present today.
For true believers, we are not happy with how this is all progressing, but Jesus gave us encouragement in Luke 21:28 with, “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your Redemption is drawing near.”
There are people who say that if Jesus were really a part of the Godhead, He would have known when the “day and hour” was due. However, Hebrews 2:7 tells us, “You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor.”
For His sacrifice to be acceptable to cover all the sins of the world, Jesus had to be a pure, sinless-blood human. As a human, Jesus did not sin even once during His time here. His declaration, “It Is Finished!” in John 19:30 was the proclamation that His blood had reached back for every sin of those who were in God’s will pre-Calvary, and every sin that would occur from Calvary to the end of this earth. No other human has ever or will ever live a sinless life here.
The stipulation for the post-Calvary souls is that we must have received and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, and Romans 6:23 are specific that all humans sin, and have the sin-blood nature within us. However, through His grace and mercy, the Father accepts all who admit we are sinners in need of a Savior; we must have faith and believe that Jesus’ pure, sinless blood sacrifice is our only pathway to be able to call on Him to forgive us and to be our eternal Savior.
For anyone to believe we will not sin after being saved, God knows that as long as we’re in these human bodies, we will sin. He has blessed us with the means to receive forgiveness as long as we are here. In 1 John 1:9-10, we’re told, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Please take just a moment and review Verse 10 above. As our Creator, God knows us better than we will ever know ourselves. Personally, I would not want to be guilty of calling our Heavenly Father a liar. Likewise, I would not want to say His Son is a liar either.
Two definite statements of our Savior should answer what the Bible is all about. First, John 14:6: “And Jesus said to him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Then Acts 4:12: “And there is Salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
There are no works we can do or fees we can pay to “earn” our way into Heaven. As stated above, only through Jesus can we be blessed with the gift of eternal life with Him.
It should come as no surprise that all who reject the Savior, or believe they can have a Heavenly home through their own efforts, will actually schedule themselves for an appearance at the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20: 11-15. That will be a one-way ticket into the lake of fire with no other options available.
With all the end-of-era signs getting more active, we must first of all remember we are not guaranteed another day here. It would be your best decision ever to have Jesus in your heart as your forever Savior rather than to take a chance and put it off until later. “I meant to” will not be a valid excuse at that horrible judgment.
All who have Jesus as their Redeemer and Savior will appear before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). This is not to determine eternal punishment, but to gain or lose rewards for what we’ve done here. The outcome will still be an eternal home with Him in Heaven forever.
The choice should be obvious, but our Savior knows there will be more at the White Throne than at His Judgment (Matthew 7:13-14). There were two thieves that were crucified with Our Savior. One died not repentant and was lost. The other asked Jesus to “remember him” and was saved at that very moment (Luke 23:42-43).
Our Heavenly Father will force no one either way. It’s an individual choice. And one more point: no one has sinned so greatly that the Blood of Jesus cannot reach them and give forgiveness, as long as it’s before they take their last breath here. A-B-C; Admit, Believe, and Call as given in Romans 10:9-13. Today would not be too early to do so.
Come, Lord Jesus!