Author Roy Lessin tells of his father’s final days on earth:

The doctor had told my dad he…had only a few days to live. When my dad heard the doctor’s report, he got all excited. “Really!” he exclaimed, “you mean I get to go be with Jesus?” My dad began telling people who visited him, “Before you go, let me give you my new address.”[1]

 

That brings up a question.  Do you know what your address will be after you pass from this life? You can know. There’s a reassuring verse in the Bible which says, “Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8 NLT). And where is Jesus now?  According to 1 Peter 3, “Christ has gone to heaven” (verse 22 NIV). That means that when a Christian dies, his new address, very simply, is “heaven with Jesus.”

You may say, “How can I be sure I will go to heaven? Am I good enough?” Good question! You see, there’s no sin in heaven. So, because all of us have sinned, we need someone to die in our place for us to have God’s forgiveness that would let us go to heaven. So, God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He died, was buried, and rose from the grave to complete that requirement.

Romans 10:9 says so plainly, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

“I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,” says the apostle John, “so that you may know you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13 NLT).

[1] Roy Lessin, Today Is Your Best Day (Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2006), 194.