May 11 Devotion - Are you going to Heaven?

If you answered Yes, what is it based on? Is it based on God’s Grace, are you born again? Is it based on your good works?

If you answered No, Jesus wants to save you. Open the door to your heart and let Him in.

If you answered maybe, you need to be sure; something that important cannot be left up to chance.

John 3 New King James Version (NKJV)

The New Birth

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Revelation 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Mathew 26:28

For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Romans 10:9-10

 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Based on the above the conclusion is: 

 Through believing and confessing that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and hence heaven, and making Jesus Lord over your life and accepting that you are born again through Jesus’ death for your sins on The Cross and His resurrection from the dead. It is a gift from God and it is based on God’s grace not our works, lest anyone should boast.

So what is the role of works? Because in James 2:14 we read:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

In order to answer the question on the role of works, click on the site below and listen to the explanation given by Charles Price, Senior Teaching Pastor at The Peoples Church in Toronto, Canada.  (Please allow one minute for it to open to Windows media player or your equivalent program)

20150503915.mp3

I invite you to repeat the following prayer for yourself:

Abba Father, thank You for Your abundant blessings and Your deep everlasting and inseparable love. Lord, thank You for loving me so much that You sent Jesus to die for my sins. I accept Your Son as Lord and Saviour. I accept Your new covenant joyously and thank You for Your grace and mercy. Lord, please strengthen me with power through Your Spirit in my inner being, so that I can always be aware that I am saved through Your grace and that I can never be worthy on my own of being Your child except through the atoning blood of Jesus. Thank You God that I am assured that I am saved and my salvation is sealed and I will spend eternity with You Father. In the Holy Name of Jesus I pray. To Him be the glory and the power and the dominion forever and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Jesus loves you,

In Him,

Wagdi Henein