So What about Heaven?

 

Why do you want to go to heaven? Is it because you love Jesus, or because you’re afraid of hell? Would you be happy to live for eternity in heaven if you could have everything you could ever imagine, and exceedingly more, but for one limitation – Jesus would not ever be there? In other words, would you enjoy a heaven with everything imaginable except Jesus Himself? Contemplate these questions because many professing Christians love Jesus for what He can give them and not for who He is in Himself. Jesus is little more than a “Sugar Daddy”. As a matter of fact, Jesus is really boring and unattractive to them, but they delude themselves into believing that this is not really the case. Numerous Christians who are sports and music fans, and movie enthusiasts, speak more of their favorite athletes, singers, and actors every week than they spend time worshipping Jesus and telling others about Him. Research has revealed that professing Christians: “spend seven times more hours each week in front of their televisions than they spend in Bible reading, prayer, and worship” (The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience by Ronald Sider). Whom do we really think we are fooling? It’s certainly not Jesus! Might it be ourselves? Not only must sports, games, music and movies never compete with Jesus, but He himself has unambiguously declared to us: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).

 

So there is definitely a serious problem because no one can love Jesus with the depth of purity He requires. This kind of love is not self-generated, it cannot be worked up through self-discipline, and it cannot be attained through the most rigorous efforts at obedience. Even highly moral people who attend church regularly and perform numerous good works cannot produce the love Jesus requires of us. Moral “Churchtians” are not necessarily genuine Christians! Something supernatural or miraculous has to happen because dead people cannot love genuinely no matter how well they sing, or how well they preach, or how many positions they hold in church, or how aggressively they engage in doctrinal arguments. The solution to the problem is in John, chapter 3. Study it very carefully because it is so sad that we confuse “intellectual ascent to truth” with regeneration. One can agree with all the doctrines of the Bible and still be as dead as a doornail. Jesus said: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Are you? How do you know? It is crucial that we follow the counsel of Peter: “Make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter: 1:10).