About Death – And Life

“I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago
—whether in the body I do not know,
or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows
—such a one was caught up to the third heaven.”
2 Corinthians 12:1-2

Paul was speaking of himself here. In prior verses he said he did not wish to boast, so here he is speaking of himself in the third person. Paul had the wonderful experience of seeing heaven. But the focus today is the fact that he did not know whether this experience happened to him while he was in his body, or whether he was taken out of his body. He didn’t know.

This is a very telling passage in which we learn how real our spirit is. We live in our body, which the Scriptures call a tent or a house, and when we leave the body the real person inside that body continues on and it’s so real that Paul, for example, couldn’t tell whether he was in his body or out of it. So he retained all his functions, sight, touch, hearing, and he was in the same form – same eyes, ears, arms, legs, his spirit was identical to the body he lived in.

Jesus made a statement that one can only understand if one understands this. He said:

“He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
John 11:25-26

SHALL NEVER DIE…

For a believer, death is not something to be feared. At the moment of death you simply change location. You don’t die. The body dies, but YOU don’t die, and the real you is so real that you can even be unaware that you have left the body. After this statement Jesus asked Martha whose brother had died:

vs 26:
“Do you believe this?”

Do YOU believe you will never die? Do you understand that you will never die?

Therefore how important it is to make sure where you go after death. Throughout the Scriptures we are told that upon death the person will go either to heaven or to hell, and it’s absolutely vital that each one seek to ensure their eternal destiny.

There needs to be a caveat here before continuing:

The Word of God absolutely forbids us from trying to make contact with the dead and from trying to leave our body purposefully (astral projection). If you have done either, you must confess these sins that you have committed against the Word of God. This is a topic for another time, but I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you that trying to contact the dead is a heinous sin before God. The first king of Israel, King Saul, LOST HIS LIFE because of trying to make contact with a departed person.

“So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord,
because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also
BECAUSE HE CONSULTED A MEDIUM FOR GUIDANCE.”
1 Chronicles 10:13

Upon what is our eternal destiny determined?

Satan has lied to mankind. In all religions he tells people their destiny is determined by their goodness or evilness …and that is …a lie. There is not a person on the face of the earth who is good enough to go to heaven, because the issue is that we are all sinners and there must be judgment on us as sinners. If a man is standing before a judge in a courtroom charged with murder or rape, there is no way he can escape his sentence by telling the judge how much good he has done. His good deeds are not the issue. His crime is the issue.

What determines a person’s fate is whether or not that crime has been judged and the sentence carried out. Romans chapter 6 tells us that the wages, or sentence, of sin is death, not speaking here of the death of the body, but eternal death because the word death means “separation.” When a person dies, he is separated from his body. But there is a second separation which the Scriptures call “the second death,” and that is eternal separation from God. And that is our fate, every one of us who stands before God to be judged for our sins.

So it’s pretty hopeless for each one of us, because each one of us is a sinner.

But what if, in that courtroom when the sentence is given – someone comes and volunteers to take the judgment upon himself in the criminal’s place? My goodness, is that possible? Who ever heard of such a thing??? Well ….there IS someone…

“For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved.”
John 3:17

God sent his sinless Son into the world to stand in our place before the judge and to receive in himself the sentence due our sins.

vs 18:
“He who believes in him is not condemned;
but he who does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

We are born “condemned already” and the sentence will either be carried out by our eternal separation from God in hell, or by accepting and surrendering our lives to the one who took that judgment FOR US. We are “condemned already,” because we are in sin. But…

vs 16:
“…God so loved the world
that He gave his only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.”

If you are not born again by faith in Jesus Christ but want to be, pray with me:

Father God, I know I am a sinner and that my sin demands judgment and the sentence of eternal separation from you in hell. There’s no way any good works on my part are going to change that sentence. But I have heard that someone else stands before you in my place, that your son Jesus Christ has stepped in to receive that sentence on my behalf. I now turn from my sinful life and place my whole destiny in the one who stands in my place. Jesus Christ, I believe in you and I ask you to become my Savior. I believe you died and went to hell IN MY PLACE and that by accepting that, by receiving you as my savior, I am cleared from all judgment. I am so thankful to you that I surrender my life and my self to you and ask you to be my Lord from this day on and for all eternity.

More:
Born Again – What Does That Mean?

More about Jesus Christ

Last Words Of Famous Atheists

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