Ready for the Life to Come

I have been thinking about this – is praying the Sinners’ Prayer all that one needs to do and once he has gotten his ticket to Heaven, he can live out his life in whatever manner he pleases, waiting to go heaven when he has passed on from this life?

The answer is no because when we look to the Bible, it is actually pointing us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12). In essence after we have prayed to receive Christ as our personal LORD and Savior, we all need to continually work towards bearing spiritual fruits for Christ (Gal 5:22). Furthermore, we are to work this out with fear and trembling which is to truly be putting away our own self will of being rooted in our sinfulness and putting on a complete surrender and dependency upon on our LORD Jesus Christ (John 15:5). We are all reminded by Solomon to fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl 12:12-13). We are all taught by Jesus Christ Himself to seek Him first in all righteousness (Matt 6:23). We are all instructed by Paul to die to sin and not live in it any longer (Rom 6:1-2).

Therefore, we definitely cannot think that we are okay so long we have prayed the Sinners’ Prayer (a one-time momentous event) and we can idle spiritually to wait to be ushered into heaven. Fellow Christians, let’s remember that we need to persevere on. We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses before us and let’s all run this race of life with perseverance (Heb 12:1-2).  Let’s continue to be the salt and light for Christ (Matt 5:13-16). Let’s be Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20). Let’s be telling people about Christ and the Gospel message which is made possible because of Christ’s Work on the Cross (2 Cor 5:21, 1 Cor 1:18). All of us as Christians need to be involved in the Christ’s ministry of reconciliation.

The Christian must look at this world through the lens of the Gospel. He must be able to see how the Bible is very much applicable to his life on earth. From Genesis to Revelation, the Word of God is conveying to all of mankind one consistent message - there is a grave problem for mankind which is sin and there is only one solution to this grave problem who is Jesus Christ. Bearing the Christian faith is definitely not holding to a ticket to heaven passively and waiting for the trip to heaven to commence. By placing our faith in Jesus Christ, we have declared war against the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4). Wake up and arise, O Christian and be ready to fight (Rom 13:11-14)!

One key thought for all of us as Christians is: What does the Christian life entail?