Teen
Life after death
Our Daily Bread
BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT . . .
Life after death
I
t’s the big one. What happens next? You might be scared about dying, or you might not think that much about it. Your whole life may seem to be stretching out ahead of you, or you might be worried that the end is going to come a little quicker. It
doesn’t matter who we are, death comes for us all. So what does happen after we die? What does the Bible say about life after death? And what do we need to do to be ready for it? Here are a few big questions about life after death, answered for you by readers in the Our Daily Bread Ministries family. So get stuck in! And if you want more, check out Is death the end? at ourdailybread.org/lookingdeeper
Do I have to
go to church to get to heaven?
A
lthough going to church is very important, it does not mean that you are OK with God or that you will go to heaven when you die. Going to church is something we ‘do’, but to get to heaven there has to be real change in who we ‘are’. That comes
by understanding there is something in our lives that stops us getting to heaven (called “sin” in the Bible), and then doing something about it.
The only way for any of us to get to heaven is by agreeing with God that we can’t reach his perfect ways (so have sin in our lives) and that we want to change. We need to give our lives to him. The Bible tells us: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (ROMANS 10:9). We need to trust Jesus, believing that he died on the cross for us and was raised to life. Going to church is important because there we learn more about Jesus and can start to understand the Bible better. It’s also a place where we can meet other Christians and become part of God’s family, who are all living for Jesus together . . . but just going to church won’t get any of us to heaven.
Am I
good enough to go to heaven?
Y
ou’re chilling after school, watching TV at home alone. There’s a knock on the door. So you get up and open it. On the doorstep is someone you don’t recognise—you’ve never seen them before in your life. They say “Hi.” You reply, “Um, hello?” They look at you like they’re waiting for something. You wonder what’s going on. After a long, weird pause, they finally ask, “Well, are you going to let me in?” And you say . . . You probably say “No, get lost”, because you don’t just let strangers into your home. Heaven is a bit like that. It’s God’s home! So getting into heaven isn’t about what you’ve done or what you know. It is about who you know. Jesus told people, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven [God’s home] . . . I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you’ ” (MATTHEW 7:21-23).
If we’re trying to be ‘good enough’ to get to heaven, we’ll never get there. There’s no way into heaven without choosing to trust Jesus personally. Knowing about him won’t be enough. We can’t get in on our own. We can’t gate-crash. We can’t buy tickets. We can’t sit an exam. We’ve got to know the person who lives there for ourselves. Jesus will never let us into his home if we’re strangers to him.
Is
hell for real?
Y
es, the Bible is clear that both heaven (REVELATION 21:1-2) and hell (REVELATION 20:14-15) exist. We like the idea of heaven being real—but none of us want there to be a hell. And it’s hard to work out what it even is. Is it a fiery pit of cauldrons and pitchforks, or an underground city filled with ghosts and goblins? Those pictures are pretty hard to believe in. Jesus spent more time warning people about the dangers of hell than he did describing heaven. Because it’s very real. The Bible is clear that we will all either go to heaven after we die, or hell. And
we must choose now where we will go. Those who decide to trust Jesus with their lives will go to heaven, his home, after they die. Those who continue to ignore or say no to Jesus will go to hell after they die. The choice we make about Jesus decides where we go: it’s as simple as that. The Bible actually gives very few details about hell itself. Being in hell is compared to burning (MARK 9:43-48), darkness (MATTHEW 22:13), grief (MATTHEW 8:12) and horror (MARK 9:44). In short, the Bible tells that hell is real, lasts forever and is to be avoided at all costs. It is the place where it’s too late to ask God to let us be part of his family-home in heaven.
Is Jesus
the only way to heaven?
J
ust before Jesus allowed himself to be arrested and executed, he said this to his friends: “ ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? . . . You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ ” (JOHN 14:1-6).
Is Jesus
the only way to heaven?
Jesus was very clear about the only way we can come to God and enter heaven: through him. There is no other way. Heaven isn’t like a city which might have hundreds of different roads leading into it. Heaven is God’s own house; so he sets the rules on who can come in (like we might decide who from our school can or can’t come into our homes). As we’ve just
read, Jesus very clearly said: “I am the way”. Not “a way”, but “the way” (which is Jesus saying that he is the one and only way). Why is he the only way? No other religion, person or lifestyle can make us perfect (which is the standard for entering heaven). Only Jesus can make us fully clean and blameless before God. That’s why he is the only way. Anything else will always fall short. Heaven only has one door: trusting Jesus.
Dead is dead Hebrews 9:24-28
People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgement (V.27).
I
s death the end? Should we be scared of it? Should we laugh it off? Should we do everything we can think of in life to make sure we die happy? One of my friends simply says, “Dead is dead. Don’t worry about it.” Is he right? Lots of people like the idea of “dead is dead”. It takes away the pressure and some of the fear. If there is nothing to come, what we do—or fail to do—today doesn’t matter quite so much. But that
isn’t what the Bible teaches us. Hebrews 9:27 says that we are all “destined to die once and after to face judgement.” If we have trusted Jesus to save us from our anything and everything we’ve done wrong, we don’t need to be afraid about meeting Him. In fact, we can look forward to it. Paul (a writer in the Bible) was prepared to look death full in the face without any fear: “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 CORINTHIANS 5:8). Jesus told Martha, who was grieving the death of her brother, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (JOHN 11:25-26). So what do you think about death? Are you scared? Or can you take Jesus’ words and trust them? And can you copy Paul’s confidence? Jesus is preparing us a place in His home. If we trust Him, we have nothing to be scared about, and everything to look forward to! VG
JESUS’ RESURRECTION WAS THE END OF DEATH. This article is from the Our Daily Bread Teen Edition annuals. Fancy getting hold of them? You can ask for your copies and see all our other resources at ourdailybread.org/teen
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. JOHN 14:1-6
Scripture taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved. © 2019 by Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved.
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