Going to heaven - how can I guarantee my eternal destination?

This, then, is the answer to your question: if you want to be saved, you must believe on God's Son. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Mark you! it is Christ, you must know. It is the Person of Christ who is the object of belief, the object of faith. Christ, personally, is the object of the soul's faith, and the one who believes in Him gets the benefit of all the work He has done. I do not agree at all with an old woman, in Arran, who said to a friend of mine, who was pressing the gospel on her, "You make far o'er muckle o' that word, believe, believe." That let out a great deal. You cannot make too much of believing. If Christ has not hitherto been the object of your faith, may God give you now to believe on His blessed Son, and you will get what the jailor got. "Thou shalt be saved," is God's assurance to the believing soul.

How is this obtained? Hear His own word, and doubt no more. "Verily, verily, I say to you, He that believes on me has everlasting life" (John 6:47). "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28). What certainty! It is a confirmation of the simple saying, "He'll no' shak' ye aff." And not only does He give eternal life, but the one who believes Him is to know that he has it, for "These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31); and, "These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

But there is another important point settled in this chapter; namely, how we can know that we possess eternal life and shall escape the judgment. When the Lord presents Himself as giving life, He shows us how we may have the assurance of possessing that life. Many honour Him as the source of life that cannot say, "I have the life." Many own Christ as the only way, who cannot say they have got life. The Lord does not leave anxiety on this question unsatisfied. He knew man's responsibility under sentence of death and judgment, and so He says (v. 24), " He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life."

To be saved therefore, to have eternal life, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is thus a question not of doing, but of believing. For it is now, not what the sinner can do, but what Christ has done, for "He took what I had earned; I get the fruit of what He has done." Therefore it is, and ever must be, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." There is no other way; and hence salvation is always connected with faith. Take a few instances: "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace" (Luke 7:50); "Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole" (Luke 17:19); "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36); "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment); but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47); "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43); "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1, etc. etc.).

When you have chosen Christ as your Saviour, you have settled the question as to your destiny. His work secures heaven for you, and delivers you from the hell that you have deserved. This work Jesus accomplished alone, and He accomplished it perfectly; and your soul's salvation depends entirely upon Christ's work, and not upon yours at all.

Thus we have seen that the blessed Person of God's Son wins my confidence. His Finished Work makes me eternally safe. God's Word about those who believe on Him makes me unalterably sure. I find in Christ and His work the way of Salvation, and in the word of God the knowledge of Salvation.

But true-hearted believers are not unfrequently staggered and alarmed by the thorough statement of the doctrine of election. Satan is often busy with this truth in the hearts of God's children. By a sort of argument "ad verecundiam," the poor faint-hearted Christian, more versed in the sad experience of personal unworthiness than accustomed to the clear shining of the Sun of righteousness, is pricked and startled by an appeal to his own conscience as to whether such an one as he is can safely deem himself the object of the special choice of Divine love. Now, let a soul harassed by temptation through indistinct apprehension of the doctrine of election, question itself simply thus: Do I believe that I can save myself? But if not, do I believe that salvation is solely of God? And if so, does the doctrine of free mercy and declared grace through the blood of Jesus meet the conscious need of my soul as under sin? If there be life in the soul from God, the answer to the last two of these questions will be as certainly in the affirmative, as that to the first will be in the negative. But, if able thus far to confess the truth of God, the believer may rest safely assured that he is in very deed elect of God. For it is not in nature either to confess its own completed ruin, or to welcome God in Christ as a Saviour. Repentance and faith are alike gifts of God, and what He gives He gives not at random, but according to the perfect election of His will.

The proper standpoint from which to get a saving view of the death of Christ is not election, but the consciousness of our ruin. This is an unspeakable mercy, inasmuch as I know I am a lost sinner; but I do not know that I am one of the elect until I have received, through the Spirit’s testimony and teaching, the glad tidings of salvation through the blood of the Lamb. Salvation — free as the sunbeams, full as the ocean, permanent as the throne of the eternal God — is preached to me, not as one of the elect, but as one utterly lost, guilty, and undone; and when I have received this salvation there is conclusive evidence of my election.

Such know, also, on the authority of the scriptures, that they have eternal life given to them, and that they possess it. We never find an apostle saying, "I feel that I have this and that, and because I feel it I know I have it." Never; because feelings quickly change, and the word never directs us to look at our feelings for evidence, but at what God says. Now what does He say about the present gift of eternal life? He says, in John's first epistle, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life." He does not say here that you may feel it, but know it; know it on the authority of God's word, which we are told was written that we might know, with divine certainty, that we have eternal life. God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life." Nothing can be more simple, more decided, more comforting, to such as trust God according to His own word. Nothing less is faith. Oh the untold blessedness of knowing, and being able truthfully to say, that God has given to me eternal life, communicated it to me, and this life is in His Son — Christ my life, so that Christ lives in me; and so real that it comes out in affections, thoughts, and feelings according to Him. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death." (1 John 3:14.) How very comforting, and yet how solemn!

But, besides this, the unbelief of the Jews brings out another thing; that is, the perfect security of the sheep — a very important question, because He was going to die. His death is in view: what will the sheep do then? Would the death of Christ in any way imperil the sheep? The very reverse. The Lord declares this in a most distinct manner. He says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (Verses 27, 28) First of all, the life is everlasting. But then it is not merely that the thing itself is eternal, but they shall never perish; for it might be pretended, that though the life lasts for ever, this is conditional on something in its recipients. Nay, "they shall never perish" — the sheep themselves. Thus, not merely the life, but those who have it by grace in Christ, shall never perish. To conclude and crown all, as far as their security was concerned, the question is answered as to any hostile power. What about some one external to them? Nay; there again, as there was no internal source of weakness that could jeopard the life, so there should be no external power to cause anxiety. If there was any power that might do so righteously, surely it must be God's own; but, contrariwise, they were in the Father's hand, no less than in the Son's hand — none could pluck them out. Thus the Lord fenced them round even by His death, as well as by that eternal life which was in Him, the superiority of which over death was proved by His authority to take it again in resurrection. This was the life more abundantly which they derived from Him. Why should any one wonder at its power? He was, for the sheep, against all adversaries; and so was the Father. Yea, "I and the Father are one." (Verses 29, 30)