GROW AND GO
FREELY COPYABLE BIBLE STUDIES
SERIES A - BASIC TEACHING
SIX

A6 SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE.

Final destination?
Heaven.
Can I be sure?

One man was sure. He was dying on the next cross to Jesus, who told him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

His past record was not asked. It was probably bad. If any conditions had been made, he could have had no chance to fulfil them.

A few minutes earlier he had been jeering and scoffing at the fellow-prisoner beside him, as unlikely a candidate for eternal joy as anyone could imagine. Then the change. He became real, real as a dying rogue can be. One moment of absolute genuine sincerity redirected him for ever.

It is possible to be one hundred percent certain of Heaven, but don’t bother to read on unless you are prepared to be real with God. Eternal destiny is not a side-issue, it can be known to those for whom it is the central issue of life.


A6.1 FIRST - CAN I BE SURE GOD WANTS ME IN HEAVEN?

“As I live,” says the Lord, “I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he shall repent and live” (Ezekiel 33:11)

God our Saviour, who wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

It is not the will of your Father in Heaven that any one of these little ones be lost. (Matthew 18:14)
(We were all babies when we were born.)

God’s will, purpose and desire to save every human being is the starting point, as is His love for all people, not just for those who already belong to Him.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus told His disciples to love their enemies,
- so that you may share the family likeness of your Father in Heaven, who makes the sun shine on good and evil and sends rain on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45) Love your enemies because God loves His - the statement could hardly be clearer and came directly from Christ Himself.

John tells us;
God loved the world so much that He gave His one-and-only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

and St Paul writes, One does not willingly die for others even if they are good, although perhaps in that case some might risk it. But God demonstrates His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7)

Here then is the starting point of the Good News, God who made us, loves us passionately, even if we have never had any relationship with Him and regardless of who or what we are. Social outcast or pillar of society, hero or villain, clean or dirty, God loves me and that love was proved on the cross.

God’s love and will to save is the foundation of what follows.


A6.2. A FREE GIFT.
To bring about His purpose He offers a free gift.

The gift of God is eternal life. (Romans 6:23)

Eternal means eternal, it would not be eternal if it could end.

Gift means gift, it would not be a gift if it could be taken away.

Not everyone accepts the gift. God takes “no” for an answer, the gift would not be a gift if it were forced; but once accepted it is irrevocable - it would not be a gift if it could be taken back. The gift of eternal life is exactly what it says it is.


A6.3 THE SUPREME GUARANTEE.
There is one supreme reason for being certain of Heaven, and it is the same for the worst rogue as for the greatest saint and is simply this; God will never undervalue the sacrifice of His Son.

Once understand the value of the person who hung on the cross and everything else falls into place.

Jesus Christ is God-become-visible, Head of Creation. He made everything in Heaven and earth, the material universe we can see and the spiritual realm we can not. Every throne, power, ruler or authority - all was made by Him and for Him. He was there before it and He holds it together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

This is the man they whipped, spat upon and nailed to a cross.

In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
(Colossians 2:9)

This was the man who prayed, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

His (God’s) Son - whom He appointed heir of all things, by whom He created the Ages, who is the brightness of His glory and the perfect expression of Himself, who by Himself took away our sins then sat down on the right hand of the greatness on high. (Hebrews 1:2-3)

Jesus Christ is worth more than all the rest of us put together. The human race could go on another million years and populate the universe with its worst, but the value of The Son of God is still great enough to buy salvation for every one.

God will never undervalue the sacrifice of His Son by refusing forgiveness to anyone who comes to Him in Jesus’ name. He will never undervalue the sacrifice of His Son by letting go of anyone whom He has once saved. He will never undervalue the sacrifice of His Son by saving anyone by any other means.

You are not your own, you are bought with a price.
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

The higher the price of a purchase, the more carefully it is guarded. When the security guard is God and the price infinite, the valuables are safe.

It is the infinite value of Christ, the supreme overpayment, that guarantees our security. God has paid for His people a billion times over and more. Therefore He will not lose them.

A6.4 GOD’S POINT OF VIEW.
We humans are so used to thinking of things from our own point of view that we often forget God’s. From our own point of view we never deserved Heaven and having been given a promise of it, we don’t deserve to keep it. So what? It has nothing to do with what we deserve. From God’s point of view, the people His Son died for are His prized possession and loved family. For His own sake He will not lose us once He has us.

God’s people are the Bride presented by The Father to the Son and the Kingdom presented by the Son to The Father - and no way will either presentation be less than the best. No one will be left out who could be in it. No one in it can be lost to it.

A6.5. THE DEPOSIT AND THE SEAL.
The word “Arrobon” means an engagement ring in modern Greek, in New Testament Greek it meant a DEPOSIT paid in advance as a guarantee to secure what was to come. It is used three times, (2 Corinthians 1:22 and 5:5. Ephesians 1:13-14) all quoted below. In the King James Version it is always translated “earnest.”

A SEAL was used to mark ownership and authority. (Ezekiel 9 is an important background study for the meaning of being sealed. See attached notes on Old Testament Salvation. )

God has stamped His seal upon us as a permanent mark that we are His property. He has also given us an engagement ring - an advance deposit which guarantees what is to come - namely His Spirit in our hearts.
(2 Corinthians 1:22)

God made us for Heaven, and He has guaranteed it by giving us His Spirit as a deposit. (2 Corinthians 5:5)

You heard the word of truth, the Good News of your rescue, and having believed in Him you received in Him the deposit which guarantees the inheritance to come - namely the promised Holy Spirit, God’s seal upon you, marking you out as His own.
(Ephesians 1:13-14)

Never let rotten words out of your mouth. Speak only what benefits your hearers and builds them up. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is God’s seal upon you, marking you out as His own until the Day of Redemption.
(Ephesians 4:29-30)

The presence of The Holy Spirit in our lives is both a seal and a deposit. The seal shows that God knows who are His own. The deposit is given so that we may know.

It is possible for any follower of Christ to experience the Holy Spirit and be sure that He lives in them. That assurance is also a guarantee of Heaven.

Salvation does not depend on the experience, but the experience is a guarantee.
God knows those he has sealed whether they know it themselves or not. He has given the deposit so that they may know.

Of course some who unquestionably belong to Christ are not living in the benefit of the experience of the Holy Spirit. They have been given eternal life and given a deposit to prove it, but have not even taken the deposit. Both are still theirs, when they do collect the deposit that has been provided for them on Earth, they will know that they have the guarantee of life in Heaven.

Similarly, Jesus said that the experience of hearing His voice is a guarantee;

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. (John 10:27-30 KJV)

To hear our Lord’s voice is an experience we can know. Our certainty of Heaven does not depend on the experience, but once a person has truly heard Christ’s voice, known Him and followed Him the guarantee stands that two almighty pairs of hands are holding that person for ever.


A6.6. CITIZENSHIP IS FOR EVER.
Our citizenship is in Heaven. (Philippians 3:20)
My earthly citizenship, as it happens, is British. When I travel abroad, any other country has the right to turn me out if I misbehave. Britain has not. It can punish me if I break its laws, but can neither refuse me admission nor send me away. Whether I have been a credit to my country or a disgrace to its name, my entry to it is guaranteed. Citizenship and behaviour are two different issues.

Heaven is not pleased with all its citizens, some are a disgrace to it. But their citizenship is not in question; only their loyalty.


A6.7. WE ARE NO LONGER “IN ADAM” BUT “IN CHRIST.”
The teaching of Romans 5-6 and 1 Corinthians 15 is not covered here. Sufficient to say that being “In Christ” instead of being “In Adam” is a total transfer out of the old humanity into the new, an event so drastic that it makes nonsense of the suggestion that it can ever be reversed.


A6.8. SALVATION IS IN HEAVEN.
Salvation is a Heaven-based transaction. The atonement was made when Christ, having died for our sins, passed through the heavens into the true Holy of Holies and presented His blood there; as the High Priest of old used to present the blood on the mercyseat. The repentant sinner praying for forgiveness on earth has little idea of what is going on, but what sets the angels rejoicing is as eternal as God who does it.

It is in Heaven, not on earth that our names are written. If Pilate could say, “What I have written I have written,” how much more will God. There are no crossings out in those records. If there were I shudder to think how many times my name would be crossed out, reinstated, deleted again, marked “stet” and that mark crossed out again. The Lamb’s Book of Life would be as unreadable as one of my manuscript notebooks.


A6.9. CHOSEN IN CHRIST
We were chosen in Christ in eternity past.

We cast ourselves on God’s mercy as sinners who need His forgiveness. Then we discover that we are is chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

The choice is rooted in eternity past and therefore destined for eternity future. What is eternal cannot cease to be eternal, because of something that happens in time.

(No this is not Calvin’s false teaching that God picks out some to save and some to damn. Choice means choice not compulsion. The choice of a human being has to be accepted by that person, whether chosen for a job, a marriage or membership of a football team. The need for acceptance is part of the meaning of the word “choice.” The selection of a slave in a market is not choosing but violation. Even in a human situation such as a job appointment or partnership, a rejected choice is never a choice at all, but once a person has accepted the position of being chosen the choice is backdated to the time it was made.)


A6.10. THE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP.
Those who know and live with God day by day, know without doubt the intimate and unique nature of the relationship which links the deepest “Holy of Holies” in the human spirit with the highest “Holy of Holies” where God’s throne is in Heaven.

His Spirit enters ours in a union of which human marriage and physical union is but the faintest shadow, the nearest analogy we can find although totally inadequate.

But having drawn that analogy, (as the Bible does) let us see it through. Human marriage and its consummation requires consent on both sides. That consent having been given and the union taken place there is a permanent bond created of which the Lord told us, “What God has joined, let not man put asunder.” God neither rapes nor divorces. The joining of the human spirit with God requires, by its nature, full and free consent on both sides and also, by its nature, it is indissoluble.

(Both sides in the old controversy between “Calvinist” and “Arminianist” miss this point and deny the very nature of the relationship. Happily many who have been deceived by one side or the other, still experience the relationship with all its intimate wonder. God is not bound by our doctrine.)