I believe in Heaven 100%. I believe in Hell
100%. Both are real places! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Could it be possible that Heaven and Hell are both filled with saved
people? And the only difference is that some believe that Jesus saved
them and some do not believe. It's a mystery. I don't know how it all
works. On one hand Christ's work is all inclusive. Saving all of
humanity. Then on the other hand if you
confess with your mouth you will be saved? huh! Which one is it?? It's
both. We are saved by grace, through faith. Grace saved us, faith opens
us up to enjoy our salvation. We must repent and believe to experience
this salvation. But repentance and faith do not save us. Jesus saved us.
God doesn't give me salvation when I repent and believe, as a mere
transaction. He gave me salvation as a gift, therefore I believe.
Believing comes down to enjoying and experiencing what is already a
reality. God's saving work is done and complete, apart from any action,
belief, works, etc. of our own. But every person must believe in this
work.
Grace Communion International wrote: "God forces this personal
decision/acceptance upon no one. Love must be freely given and freely
received; it cannot be coerced, or it is not love. Thus human decision,
the exercise of human freedom, is of great importance, but only in this
context of accepting God's gift that has already been freely given." The
decision to believe in Christ's all inclusive work is for each person
to decide. But their decision to believe doesn't save them. Rather they
are choosing to believe in a work that has already been completed.
Robert Capon wrote an awesome story about faith. It went something like
this. Imagine a man was sick in the hospital, he can't leave and he has
been in there for months. The whole time he has been in the hospital he
has been fretting about his home. He knows it is falling apart. The
paint is pealing, the grass is tall. The water pipes are leaking. But he
can't do anything about it. So in comes a friend of his and says, "Hey
bro, don't fret or worry about your house. I got it all taken care of. I
hired a contractor and he fixed the whole thing up." Here is the
question: does the sick man believing or disbelieving the word of his
friend add a single thing to the reality that his friend fixed his
house? NO, not at all! The sick man's decision to believe his friend's
words will let him enjoy the peace and rest that his home is fixed and
safe. If he doesn't believe he will continue in worry and anxiety. But
either way, whether he believes or not his friend did fix the house. It
wasn't fixed because he had enough faith or believed ... It was fixed
because of the strength of his friend.
Faith then is an effortless
response to an already present reality. Thank God, I was saved by the
strength of another! I was saved by Jesus! The good news is simply this:
Good... News. News always talks about something that already happened.
If we believe what the news man tells us or if we disbelieve it, it
doesn't change the fact that what they reported about actually happened.
It's the same with the Good News! Jesus already died, He said "It is
finished!" Now we get the honor of telling others what he already did! I
encourage you to dive into the word and search for yourself. Come to
the word with a clean slate and see what you will find! Without going
into detail here are a few verses you could start with. Acts 10, John
3:16-21, Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8, 2 Timothy 1:9, Ephesians
2:4-10, Romans 4, Galatians 3, Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 Bless
you! :) Cheer up! Be happy! I LOVE YOU!
- Micah
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