How can you know for certain where you will go after you die?
The Bible was written so you would believe in Jesus and have eternal life!
1 John 5:13 reads, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."
The Bible teaches:
1. God created you for His glory.
"Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth...whom I created for my glory (Isaiah 43:6-7).
God made you to magnify His greatness - the way telescopes magnify stars. He created you to put His goodness and truth and beauty and wisdom and justice ON DISPLAY The greatest display of God's glory comes from deep delight in all that He is. This means that God gets the praise and you get the pleasure. God created you so that He is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
2. Every human should live for God's glory.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)."
If God made you for His glory, it is clear that you should live for His glory. Your duty comes from His design. So your first obligation is to show God's value by being satisfied with all that He is for you. This is the essence of loving God (Matthew 22:37) and trusting Him (1 John 5:3-4) and being thankful to Him (Psalm 100:2-4). It is the root of all true obedience, especially loving others (Colossians 1:4-5).
3. You have failed to glorify God as you should.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)."
What does it mean to "fall short of the glory of God?" It means that you have NOT trusted and NOT treasured God the way you should. You have not been satisfied with His greatness and walked in his ways. You have sought your satisfaction in other things, and treated them as more valuable than God, which is the essence of idolatry (Romans 1:21-23). Since sin came into the world you have all been deeply resistant to having God as your all-satisfying treasure (Ephesians 2:3). This is an appalling offense to the greatness of God (Jeremiah 2:12-13).
4. You are subject to God's just condemnation.
"The wages of sin is death... (Romans 6:23)."
You have all belittled the glory of God. How? By preferring other things above Him. By your ingratitude, distrust and disobedience. So God is just in shutting you out from the enjoyment of his glory forever. "They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
The word "hell" is used in the New Testament twelve times - eleven times by Jesus himself. It is not a myth created by dismal and angry preachers. It is a solemn warning from the Son of God who died to deliver sinners from its curse. You ignore it at great risk.
If the Bible stopped here in its analysis of the human condition, You would be doomed to a hopeless future. However, this is not where it stops...
5. God sent His only son Jesus to provide eternal life and joy.
"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners... (1 Timothy 1:15)."
The good news is that Christ died for sinners like you. And He rose physically from the dead to validate the saving power of his death and to open the gates of eternal life and joy (1 Corinthians 15:20). This means God can acquit guilty sinners and still be just (Romans 3:25-26). "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Coming home to God is where all deep and lasting satisfaction is found.
6. God applies the benefits of Jesus Christ's death for sinners to those who repent and have faith in Him.
"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out" (Acts 3:19). "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved (Acts 16:31)."
"Repent" means to turn from all the deceitful promises of sin. "Faith in Christ" means to completely depend upon Christ's sacrificial death alone to save you from your sins. You cannot earn your salvation. You cannot merit it (Romans 4:4-5). You can only be saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). God's salvation must be received like you receive a free gift—Christ paid for you it, you offer nothing for it, and you receive it by faith (Romans 3:24). When you believe and are saved, God gives you eternal life, eternal peace with Himself, an eternal relationship as a child of the Father, and a reborn soul that can glorify God and be satisfied in Him—forever!
Now...what should you do?
Believe in Jesus Christ the Lord!
-> TURN from your love for your sins and from whatever you are trusting in now (self-righteousness, a religion, etc) and...
-> CALL upon Jesus to save you from the condemnation of your sins and...
-> RECEIVE His gift of eternal life!
Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15)
"All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Continue depending on God by faith through prayer, Scripture reading, singing, serving and Christian fellowship.
-> READ the Bible every day to mature in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be mature, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:15-16
-> LISTEN to preaching to know God more, trust Him in every way, and love Him supremely. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the
word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1
Thess 2:13)
-> GATHER with a Bible-believing church to be spiritually built up with God's Word and by God's people through preaching, Bible study, singing, prayer, fellowship, serving, and going out with the gospel. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together (1 Cor 1:2)