Certainty of salvation
I've been having the fear of Judgement Day recently. What will it be like? Doesn't it say in the Bible that those living today will be judged more harshly than those who died in Sodom and Gomorrah? What does that mean? How will I be judged? Does that leave for a chance that I won't enter heaven?
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 describes what we can expect on Judgment Day. Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) informs us that the judgment that took place at people’s death will be made public, and those who are alive on the earth at the time of Jesus’ visible return on the last day will be judged as well. The basis for judgment is faith in Jesus Christ or unbelief (Mark 16:16).
When Jesus sent out his twelve disciples on a preaching mission, he told them: “Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (Matthew 10:11-15). Jesus’ words in the closing verse tell us that the unbelieving people of Sodom and Gomorrah will face eternal suffering, but the people who rejected the Lord’s own apostles can expect even greater suffering. The Bible does teach degrees of suffering in hell.
You and I will be judged like everyone else in the world: on the basis of what was in our hearts when life on earth came to an end. Because salvation is God’s work and because saving faith is God’s gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), you and I can have absolute confidence in God’s decree of “not guilty.” You and I can share in the apostle Paul’s attitude, as he thought about the last day: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
When we look to ourselves and remember some of our sins, we can have doubts about our status in God’s family and our future in God’s kingdom. On the other hand, when we look to Jesus—what he has done as our Savior and the sure promises he has made—those doubts can lessen and disappear. I encourage you to look more to Jesus. He lived up to his name, which means “Savior.” That brings certainty to our lives. God bless you.