If you were to die at this very moment, would the Lord place you in heaven or hell? Most would answer. “I hope it would be in heaven”. Are we not confident in our final destination? Why not? Who else would know of your standing before God if not yourself? Not only that, no other group of people should be more confident in their salvation than God’s very own children. Brethren, God calls for all of us to be confident. Listen to what the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”. Paul knew exactly where his final destination would be. Can we say the same? Was Paul’s salvation unique? Can we have the same confidence in our salvation? Brethren, do you know that God wants us to be confident in our place in His spiritual family? You see saints, our confidence is not in our own abilities, or in our own works. The truth of the matter is that on our best day we all fall short of God’s righteousness. No one on earth today can say because of what they have done that God owes them heaven. It’s because of the grace and mercy of God, through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that this precious gift of salvation is available to all men and women. Paul tells us in Titus 2:11 that, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men”. Therefore it’s not confidence in ourselves; it’s confidence in God through our obedience in His word. This has been true since the beginning, back in the Garden of Eden. The failure of Adam and Eve in Eden was primarily a failure of total belief and dependence in God’s word, and a dependence in their own human personality. Eve failed to have such a confidence in God and was thus lured by Satan into disobeying God’s command. Mankind has always tried to rely on himself and his own abilities rather than God who created him. King Solomon knew this when he stated in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death”. I’m reminded of a lifeguard and the technique they use to save a person from drowning. When a person is drowning the lifeguard is trained to swim out near the person, but will not immediately try to save them. The reason why is because the person drowning would be panicking, splashing, and kicking trying to save themselves. The lifeguard will wait until the person is tired of trying to do it on their own, then rescue them and take them to safety. My point is that mankind is drowning in sin, and they are putting their trust and confidence in trying to save themselves. God wants us to rest on Him and have confidence in Him to rescue us. Therefore saints, our confidence is in God, and not in ourselves. God tells us we should be confident and to hold fast to it. In Hebrews 3:6 the bible tells us, “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” The Apostle John wrote the letter of 1 John to give us confidence and blessed assurance in our salvation. An interesting fact about this letter is that the word know can be found 38 times. The Apostle John wanted Christians to know and have confidence in their salvation. In 1 John 5:13-15 John writes, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him”. John writes to tell Christians how to know we are saved. This is the stated purpose of his letter. Brethren, it’s a beautiful thing to know that we have heaven in our possession. Furthermore, our confidence in our salvation is totally based and rooted in our obedience. God doesn’t want us to go through this life guessing and doubting our salvation. The hard work has already been done through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 10:19, the Hebrew writer tells us, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Therefore, since Jesus has made a one-time sacrifice for sins, and serves in heaven as high priest to make reconciliation between sinful man and God, the saints of God may confidently enter into the most holy place in heaven. I will close this article by asking the question again. If you were to die at this moment where would the Lord place you, in heaven or hell? As Christians, if we are obedient our answer should confidently be heaven.
