Most Important Question

The Most Important Question You Will Ever Answer

I would like to ask you a simple question that is going to have a huge impact on your life. 

The question is this:

Have you come to a place in your life and your spiritual experience where you know without any doubt at all, that if you were to die right now, you would go right away to Heaven to live with God for eternity?

I want you to think about it before you answer, because this is a very important question which we all will need to face sooner or later. Your answer could be one of the following:

1. Well I hope so
2. I am not sure – is it possible for someone to be sure?
3. I am not sure but am hoping for the best
4. Yes I know without a doubt that I will go to heaven when I die

Now before I can give you the correct answer to this question, I would like to ask you a second question. This will help me to better understand where you are coming from.

The second question is this:

If you were to die and stand before God right now and He says to you, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say to Him?

Since you are reading this, and cannot give me your answer right away, I will show you the kind of answers that most of us would give. You may have said something similar.

Then I am going to give you some good news that you may have never heard before. So if you are up to it, why don’t you stick around and hear everything that I have to say?

Most people are not absolutely sure if they would go to heaven, although they hope they will. But their answer to the second question is often very similar. After all, what does God require of you before He will let you into heaven?

The logical answer is that I would have to prove to Him that I have lived a reasonably good life and that I deserve to be in heaven. Is this not the kind of answer you gave?

You see it is our nature to always see the good in ourselves, even if we often see the bad in other people. Even hardened criminals will not freely admit that they are bad. They all think that they do still have some good in them. 

We often try to work hard to somehow earn the right to get into heaven. And we hope that God will overlook our failures and let us in because of His love. 

Every story you have ever seen portrayed by Hollywood concerning what happens after death always presents this idea. Either God will let us all into heaven, because He is so loving, or He will let us in because we did our best to live a good life. 

Well if you have thought along these lines or used the same arguments, I want to tell you something that might amaze you. This is good news, and probably the best news you have ever heard. 

Here it is in a nutshell:

Heaven is a free gift. It cannot be earned or deserved in any way

Now the chances are this cuts right across everything you have ever believed or been taught. And it might seem like something you find hard to believe. So I will back it up by explaining to you how I came to this conclusion.

I will lay it out for you step by step so that you can understand it clearly. So please read all the way through to the end before thinking up some arguments or excuses ok?

Our Human Nature 

Since Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, every single person who comes into this world has automatically found themselves wanting to sin and not fully obey God.

Even if you have never been told what God requires, you know that you have at least once broken His laws. Not only this, but you continue to do this every day. The Bible puts it this way:

For everyone has sinned and continually falls short of the blessing that God has for us. Romans 3:23

But then the Bible also says the following:

The wages that sin pays, is death, but the gift that God gives is eternal life, given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6:23

Here already you can see what I told you – that eternal life is a gift from God given to us by Jesus.

Sin is Stronger Than Us

You might try your best to not sin and do the right thing, but we all soon find that there is something in us that keeps us going the wrong way. Nobody had to teach us how to sin, and nobody can show us how to stop sinning.

So if you are going to make it to heaven depending on the kind of life you live, there is an obvious question that needs to be answered. Otherwise you can never be sure that you will make it.

This is the question we all need to be answered. If we are to earn the right to be admitted to heaven, then how good must we be, and what kind of sins are more likely to bar us from heaven. In other words,

What is God’s Passmark?

When you write examinations at school or college, you are required to get above a certain mark to qualify in a subject. Although there are different grades, there is a minimum mark you have to get to pass the exam. 

So if we are going to pass God’s exam, what passmark does He require of us? 

The answer is given to us clearly in the Bible. Here it is:

Be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48

If this is the case, then let me ask you, “Are you perfect yet? Do you know anyone who is perfect?”

So then if God’s passmark is perfection that means nobody in this world can possibly qualify or earn the right to go to heaven. 

 A Picture To Help You

Let me give you a little picture that will help you to understand this better. Imagine that you are standing on the edge of a cliff with a steep drop and that there is another cliff further away. 

You can take any two objects in a room to illustrate this. Take two chairs for example and move them a fair distance apart from each other. 

Now let’s say that the distance between these two cliffs is 100 feet or about 30 meters. Can you see that in your mind?

Suppose then that we take everyone that has ever lived, including you and we put everyone on the one cliff facing the other one. Suppose I told you that if you are able to jump the distance between these two cliffs, then you are safe and guaranteed heaven?

How many people do you think will make it to the other side. The world long jump record right now is just under 10 meters or 30 feet. So what are the chances of you or anyone else for that matter, making it through to the other side?

Some younger and stronger folks will make a bigger jump than others. Weak and old people will barely stumble over the edge. But in the end, everyone is going to fall into gorge below and be dashed to death.

So you see, if you are going to make it to heaven by the things you do, or how good you are, then you will surely fail, because God has set the standard too high for any of us to reach it.

Now before you come up an argument or disagree with this, I would like to tell you more about God. 

The Nature of God

The Bible tells us that God is love. This means that love is part of the very essence of His being. Not only does God love, but He cannot help Himself – His love pours out automatically.

Now if that is true, then how could God punish people for their sins and bar them from the blessing of Heaven? Surely He will overlook our failures and let us in anyway?

Trust me, if God could do that He would. But you see He also has other parts to His nature. He is also merciful which when added to love means He wants to show mercy. But God is also a just and righteous God who must do the right thing. 

He set His laws in motion just as our leaders set laws in place that we must live by. And every violation of those laws carries a punishment. When you break the law, you must pay for it and receive the punishment. 

So as much as He loves us and wants to let us into heaven, God has to maintain the law that He set in place. And if a punishment was promised for breaking His laws, then that punishment must be carried out. 

A Natural Illustration

Imagine that you have broken one of the laws of your country and have been arrested and charged for this as a crime. You have to appear before a judge or magistrate to plead your case and receive a sentence for your crime. 

If you have broken the law, then you will be punished according to what the Law demands for a violation of its commands. And you will be judged and sentenced by someone who knows and upholds the law.

Now let’s suppose that as you stand up in court, you notice that the magistrate is actually an old friend of yours. He is likely to be lenient on you and try to prevent you from getting punished.

But if you broke the law and he is a good judge, can he just let you go? No he cannot, because you have broken the law. He might be able to give you the minimum punishment for breaking the law, but he cannot let you go unpunished. 

This is the position God finds Himself in when we sin. He loves us so much that He really wants to let us go. But because He is a just God, He has to punish us for our sins.

Now God found Himself in that position when Adam and Eve first sinned, and He had to ban them from the Garden of Eden with all its blessings. But because He loved them and also loved us who have descended from Adam, He came up with a plan.

That plan was carried out when Jesus appeared on this earth and did something that none of us has ever been able to do.

Who Jesus Is

Everybody knows Jesus as an historical character, but it is important that you fully understand who He is, or He cannot help you in any way. 

You see God’s plan was that He would totally reverse all of the effects of the sin of Adam and eventually the sins of everyone who descended from Adam. He had to find a way to express His love fully but at the same time satisfy the demands of His justice and His laws.

Firstly, someone had to make it to heaven by never sinning and satisfying God’s demands in His laws. And secondly someone had to take the punishment and pay the price for the sins of every human being descended from Adam.

Since nobody who has descended naturally from Adam could ever do this, God had to somehow cause a man to be born who had the same natural form as Adam, but was not descended from him naturally.

He decided to do this by coming down Himself in the form of a man who would be both God and man joined together in one person. And He did this by implanting an embryo into the body of a young virgin named Mary.

The baby that was born from Mary did not have a natural father, because God was His father. And Mary did not provide the egg to be fertilised – she was only a surrogate mother, carrying the baby until it was born. 

What Jesus Did

When Jesus was born He was fully man, but also fully God. He was born like Adam was originally – without a sinful nature and perfect. Now all He had to do was to live a sinless life to earn the right to heaven as a man. And then He had to take the punishment for the sins of all men and women born from Adam.

Jesus fully carried out both of these. He lived a perfect sinless life, even though He faced the same temptations to sin that we all face. And then even though He was perfect and did not deserve to suffer for His own sin, He chose to suffer  and die for the sins of every one of us.

So when Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment for your sin and for mine. And God’s justice was now fully satisfied. Jesus died in our place, and He purchased on our behalf, a place in heaven.

But He did not remain in the grave. He arose again from the dead, holding in His hands the prize of eternal life. And now He comes to you and offers you eternal life as a free gift. 

Since He has already fully paid the price for this, you do not need to pay anything towards it. All you need to do is reach out and take it freely from His hands.

We Receive This By Faith

The only thing that God requires from us to receive this free gift, is to have faith in Jesus and to reach out and take the free gift that He offers. 

In other words, you do not have to do anything or carry out any kind of activity or good deeds to receive it. You just reach out and take it by faith.

But what exactly is faith? Another word that is often used for faith is to believe. When you believe you show faith. So when someone offers you something, and you believe that their promise is true, you gratefully reach out your hand, and take it from them, thanking them for it. 

So faith means to believe. It also means to be fully convinced of something, to fully entrust yourself to someone and to receive something from someone else.

What True Faith Looks Like

Now you might say, “Yes of course I believe. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and He can give me eternal life.”

But believing with your mind alone is not enough. You must believe enough to take action by reaching out and receiving His free gift. And to do this, you must let go of all your own efforts and attempts to earn it. 

Let me give you a simple illustration to explain this. Put a normal chair down in front of you and then looking at the chair ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I believe the chair can hold anything that I put on it?
2. Put some of your possessions on the chair and see that it can hold these things.
3. Now do you believe that the chair can hold you if you sit on it?
4. I am sure your answer will be yes. But is the chair holding you right now? No it is not because you have not sat down and put your weight on it.

So we can look at what God offers and believe that He will do something for us. Most people will bring their prayer requests to God because they hope that He will answer their prayers. This is like putting some of your possessions onto the chair.

You can even believe that God will give you the free gift of salvation, but faith is more than believing. It is like putting your belief into action and actually sitting on the chair.

It Takes Action To Release Faith

Some years ago a man stretched a tightrope across the Niagara Falls and then proceeded to walk from one end to the other. As the crowds watched he asked them, “Do you believe that I can put a wheelbarrow on the rope and push it across?”

They all shouted that they believed he could do it. And sure enough he did successfully push the wheelbarrow all the way and back on the rope. 

But then he asked again, “Do you believe that if I put a man in the wheelbarrow I could push him across.” They all shouted loudly that yes, they believed he could.

Then he said, “Ok I would like to ask for a volunteer who is ready to get in the wheelbarrow so I can push them across?”

How many people do you suppose stepped forward to volunteer? Not a single one. You see they all believed he could do it, but they were not prepared to put their trust in him to do it for them. 

So it is not enough to say you believe God will do this for you. You must take a step of faith and put your life completely in His hands and allow Him to do it. 

How to Receive Your Free Gift

Let me show you how you can receive the free gift of eternal life from the hand of the Lord Jesus. You simply need to come to Him and tell Him that you believe He died for you and He offers you eternal life. 

Then you must put your life completely in His hands and let Him take control of your life. And when you do this your faith will enable you to reach out and receive His gift. 

It is a really simple process.

Where To From Here?

So now I want to ask you two simple questions, again. 

1. Does this all make sense to you? Did you understand everything that I shared? If you did not then why not go and read again everything that I said. 
2. This is the most important question of all – Would you like to receive the free gift of eternal life that Jesus is offering you right now? 

If your answer to both of these questions was Yes, then I would like to take you by the hand and bring you to the place where you can know without a doubt that if you were to die today, you would spend eternity in the presence of God in heaven.

We are going to come to the Lord in prayer and pray just a simple prayer. I will tell you what to say, but you must mean it with all your heart or there is no point. You must exercise your faith as you do this, by reaching out to Him and placing yourself fully into His hands.

The Prayer That Changes Everything

If you are ready to do this, then I would like you to repeat out loud the following words:

Lord Jesus I come to you now and acknowledge that I am a sinner. I have broken your laws and deserve to be punished and barred from your heaven. But I believe that you died for me on the cross, and paid the price for my sins. 

I want to receive the free gift of eternal life that you are offering me now. So I give my life completely to you and put my future into your hands. And I invite you to be my Lord and Saviour. I invite your Holy Spirit to come into me and to change me as I turn from my old life. And from this day forward I will live the kind of life that you desire me to live. 

Thank you Lord for forgiving me of my sin. Thank you for washing my sins all away and making me into a new person, Thank you for helping me from now on to live a life that is pleasing to you. 

I receive this all now in Jesus Name.

Amen

Welcome To The Family

If you really meant it and prayed this prayer from your heart then something very exciting just took place deep inside of you.

Firstly God has wiped away every sin that you have ever committed and He now looks at you as though you have never ever sinned.

In addition, He has come to live with you very closely in the form of the Holy Spirit, whom you cannot see because He is a spirit. But from now on He is resident deep inside of you, and available to you every minute of the day.

The process that you have just gone through is called being born again. It means that the deep inner part of you, your human spirit has been changed and made into a new person.

You are now part of a new family, which you share with every other person who has accepted Jesus as their Savior. It means that you and I are also now related, not in the natural, but spiritually.

You have now become my brother or sister in Christ, and we share a deep bond in Him.

Babies Need to Grow

Since you are now like a new baby spiritually you will find a new hunger for spiritual things, just as a newborn baby starts to cry out for food right after it is born.

And there are two main things that will help you to receive spiritual food and start to grow. The first source of spiritual food is God’s Words that are recorded in His book, the Bible.

If you do not have a Bible I suggest you go and get one as soon as possible. There are also many electronic bibles available freely online and you could download one onto your mobile device.

Just a word of advice when it comes to which version of the Bible to read. The original Bible was translated some years ago into a form of English that we no longer use in normal conversation. It is called the King James Version and I think you might get a bit confused if you try reading that version first.

So rather look for a more modern version, like the New International Version or the Amplified Bible. Find one that flows in easy language and you feel comfortable reading.

The second important thing to start doing is taking time each day to come to God in prayer. Prayer is just having a conversation with another person, so try to see Jesus sitting there next to you and talk to Him as though He is really there live with you.

In time you will learn how to hear Him talk back to you, but just as it takes a baby time to learn to hold a conversation, do not expect this to happen right away.

Finally find at least one other person who has also accepted Jesus as their saviour and spend time with them talking about the Lord and about this new life you have started.

I will be showing you more in additional lessons soon, but for now, start walking this new road that you have chosen. You are going to find a new exciting life to live.

And if you found the Lord from this website and from this lesson, then please write us using the contact us link at the top and share with us what happened. 

After that we will be there to help you along the way and show you some things that you need to know to enjoy the full benefit or being a born again child of God.

In His Love

Les and Daphne Crause