Today’s reading: 2 Kings 2; John 1
I tend to make the assumption that the people reading this blog are Christians, or are at the very least familiar with the the biblical teaching about salvation, the gospel, but I also know that for many years, I thought I knew what the Bible taught about getting to heaven and I was very wrong. So instead of talking about Elijah being taken bodily into heaven out of our reading in 2 Kings 2 today, I want to just look at the gospel out of John 1.
I was trying to figure out what section of John 1 to quote here in case someone is reading apart from the reading plan, but it was way too much to include, so I landed on this section, which captures the core message of the gospel, but just know that there is so much more in John 1 that goes along with this that it is very worth going and reading for yourself if you are not already familiar with it.
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The gospel (which literally means, “the good news”) is that God put on flesh, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to pay for our sins, and now by faith in Him, believing in His name, we can be made children of God with the full assurance of eternity in heaven that that status warrants.
Contrary to popular belief, the Bible does not teach that we have to be good enough to get to heaven, unless we are trying to get there without Jesus, but in that case “good enough” means fully morally perfect from beginning to end of your life. No, the clear teaching of the Bible is that we can never be good enough to warrant heaven on our own, but God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3). The gospel is not that Jesus opens the door to heaven and our good works get us across the threshold, but that Jesus is Himself worthy, and by faith in Him, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we enter into that worthiness in Christ.
It does not matter your background or ethnicity, it does not matter your gender or social status, it does not matter how sinful you have been or how sinful you will be in the future, all that matters is faith in Jesus, the Son of God, who died on the cross in our place so that we could be with Him in eternity.
If you place your faith in Jesus as your hope for eternity in heaven, you can rest assured that you will spend eternity with Him. If, however, your hope of salvation rests in anything other than Him, I beg you to consider what John tells us in John 1 and rest your hope of eternity only in Him. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him, but for all who do come through Him, who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God.
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