When you die and find that you are an eternal spirit/soul being, will Jesus Christ be just a great teacher, or will He be your only way to eternal life?
Rev. Howard Storm died and was being escorted to hell by demons when he was urged by angels to pray. Howard was an atheist and didn’t know how to pray anything except “Now I lay me down to sleep.” As he began to pray that simple children’s prayer he felt the Light of God shine around him, protecting him from the evil. He knew at that moment that Jesus Christ was drawing him toward eternal life and away from eternal darkness and eternal death. You can read his testimony by clicking here.
The Rich man died in Luke chapter sixteen, as well as a beggar named Lazarus. Lazarus was carried by the angels to Abraham’s Bosom or what the Apostle Paul calls Paradise or the 3rd heaven. The rich man found himself in hell in torment.
The rich man could see Abraham and Lazarus across a great gulf. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue with water. This shows that the rich man had the same character traits that he had while he was living on earth. He still considered himself the master of Lazarus and still believed that he had the power to order him to cater to his needs. Abraham had to set the rich man straight: there is no comfort in hell, you reap what you sow in life.
“It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
“We all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Jesus loved Lazarus (a different one from Luke 16). He wept over his death and over the unbelief of those around Him. Jesus told the sisters of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, that Lazarus would rise again. Jesus had to clarify for them that He was the resurrection and the life and even though you died as a believer in Him, you would rise again in the resurrection. (John 11:25)
Then Jesus said something amazing. He that believes in Him will never die! (John 11: 26)
Scripture teaches us there are two deaths: a physical one and an eternal one. Jesus is telling us that we as believers in Him will never die the 2nd eternal death, but we will live with Him for eternity.
Paul says that when Jesus returns, He will bring all dead believers with Him, as He resurrects them from their graves, and He will catch-up all living believers together with these resurrected believers to meet the Lord in the air. (I Thessalonians 4:13-18)
It is a guarantee that you will age and die.
The big question you need to answer before your departure from this life is: “Who Will Jesus Christ Be to You When You Die?”
Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6)
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis