She Learned Sincerity Is Not Enough!

"M" sincerely thought she would go to heaven because her small child died unexpectedly and she felt in her heart that she needed to be with him some day.  Does sincerity determine destiny?  How would you respond to that? Her guy friend, K, didn't know where he would spend eternity.  Both wanted to know what the Bible says about how they can know with certainty their eternal destinies will be heaven.  Naturally, I was excited to explain to them the life-saving, life-transforming news.

Acts 10 records the story of a sincerely devout, religious man named Cornelius.  Though Cornelius was sincerely devout and religious, Acts 10 shows that he was sincerely unsaved until God directed the Apostle Peter to go to Cornelius' home and share the gospel with him and his household.  When Cornelius believed and obeyed the gospel, he and his household were saved and baptized.  Had Cornelius not heard the gospel or obeyed it, he would have sincerely died in his sins, separated from God for eternity in the lake of fire.

Similarly, people hold sincere beliefs about life after death.  Many of those beliefs are sincerely wrong, like M's sincerely wrong belief that she would spend eternity in heaven because her deceased child "needed her."  We must lovingly and compassionately explain the truth to them, as Peter explained the truth to Cornelius.  We must urge them to obey the gospel by believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and turning to Him in repentance for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

"Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations . . . ." 
(Luke 24:45-47).

I began by using the 10 Commandments to help M and K see that they had violated God's moral law and were deserving of punishment.  I shared with them what Jesus said about hell, how it's a place of eternal fire (Mark 9:43-49).  They recognized that if they died that day, they would spend eternity in hell, not heaven. 

I then had the joy of sharing with them how much God loved them by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for their sins so they don't have to.  I asked them if they believed Jesus is God's Son who died to pay for their sins.  They believed.  I then explained to them the importance of turning to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation by crying out for forgiveness of their sins and turning to follow Him with their lives.  I asked them when they were going to repent, since they don't know how much time they have left.  They both said they were going to do it right away!

Pray that M and K have both repented and are seeking to follow Jesus!