To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 5:4-5 “For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

How confident are you that you’ll go to heaven after you die?  Are you sure that that’s where you’ll end up? Are you like so many that think that the key to entering heaven is simply to die, for that’s the message you hear at so many funerals? 

In John 14, which we hear read at so many funerals, Jesus told his followers that He was going to prepare a place for them. He says it’s a place “of many rooms” or as some translations put it “of many mansions.” He’s talking about heaven, the city of God, the new Jerusalem. It’s an awesome place.  One way to think of its greatness is to consider that the Bible tells us that the universe was created by God in just six days.  Not many people believe this, mind you; nevertheless, it’s the truth of God. But then think of the fact that Jesus told us that He was going to prepare a place for us – a preparation that began over 2,000 years ago.  What an awesome place this must be!

However, another truth about heaven is that only those who have, themselves, been prepared for it will ever enter there. That’s what the passage above is talking about when it says that God “has prepared us for this very thing.” So how has He done this? Are you one who has been prepared? How do you know? 

Well, one of the things we know about heaven is that “nothing unclean will ever enter it” (Revelation 21:27).  So, are you unclean, or clean?  If you are depending on your own goodness as a basis for this, you need to know that “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6).  No, if you think that you are ready for heaven because you see yourself as a good person, think again, for the only ones who are truly prepared for heaven are those who have been cleansed by the blood of the Crucified One.  It is only those whom God has prepared by His gift of forgiveness in the sacrifice of His Son that will be there.  It is only to those that God has said “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). 

Another thing: Do you love Christians, for it is only Christians who will be in heaven? Has your heart been prepared for an eternity with the saints by a love that God has given you right now for them? Do you want to be with them now?  Are you loving them in tangible ways?  As the Lord has told us in 1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” And of course, whoever abides in death has not been prepared for a life in heaven.

And then one other thing: do you long to be with Christ?  Do you pray to Him now? Do you long for time to be alone with Him and listen to Him speak to you from His Word?  Has your heart been changed from being at enmity with God to being in love with Him? If so, it is only because God has given you His Holy Spirit with the desires that come from His Spirit, and this is one of the evidences that you have been prepared by Him for Heaven. 

So, do these things describe you?  Has God prepared you for the place that He has prepared for them that love Him?  If not, I would urge you to turn from your sin, which will keep you from heaven, to the only One Who is capable to forgive that sin and thus prepare you for Heaven.  For you see, nothing impure will ever enter that place.  No one that isn’t dressed in the white robes of the righteousness of Christ is fit to go in (Revelation 7:9-17).  And although it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us, sinners must still receive Him and His sacrifice for their sin in order to be prepared by Him for the place that He has prepared for the righteous.