Who will go to heaven?

The "everlasting kingdom" is not heaven. No one gains heaven as the result of diligence or fruitfulness; nor do some gain an abundant and others a meagre entrance there. There is no entrance into heaven save through the work of Christ — a work perfect and available alike for all who believe — so that all who enter at all enter in the same way and on the same footing without distinction.

I will pause here to say a word on the difference between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God always supposes regeneration, conversion. The kingdom of heaven may have in it many mere professors. Thus in Matt. 13 the kingdom of heaven is compared to a field with tares and wheat, and to leaven, which always means some bad thing in Scripture. Again in chap. 25 the kingdom of heaven is likened to five wise and five foolish virgins, but the kingdom of God always implies conversion. Our Lord did not say to Nicodemus, cannot see the kingdom of heaven; but cannot see, nor enter, the kingdom of God. All who believe this testimony, and rest on the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, are saved. Those on the other hand, who do not believe, are lost eternally. God tells us this in His word. Whether you believe it or not, the fact remains, for He tells the truth.

“Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” is the way of blessing. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). There is no other way. Make no mistake.

208 I do not think children enter into the question here — no more than when the apostle says, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." They really begin to sin as soon as they begin to live: though it be undeveloped, their will works. I do not doubt they go to heaven: Matthew 18, I think, shews it, and the ground; but the apostle is looking at man manifested as man, that is, what he is and does. Children are saved, not by innocence, though practically an expression of it, but because Christ came to save what was lost. This question then I dismiss; I refer to it merely as an objection which might be made.

Salvation then, as it is of God's grace, is through Christ. "Through me if any one enter, he shall be saved." It is not for the Jew only but for the Gentile also; it is for "any one." But he must enter through Christ. Through Me if any one enter, he shall be saved. He may be baptised and be lost; he may take the Lord's Supper, and be lost. If any one enter through Christ, he shall be saved. This He declares; and His words shall endure when heaven and earth pass away.

O my reader, hear the word of God. Receive Christ, Who alone is the Saviour and gives life eternal. It is "of faith that it might be according to grace." Ordinances may figure truth but cannot save. On the ground of works you are lost; but Jesus is Lord and Saviour. "Ye are saved by grace through faith; and this not of yourselves [which some might have thought]; it is God's gift; not of works that none might boast." Jesus is the way, the sole and sure way, to the Father. Look to Him only, and call on Him. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The word of truth is the gospel of salvation to the believer.

Nor does this apply only to Israel. “For God so loved the world.” This love is so marvelous that the beloved, only begotten Son of the Father was given by Him as a sacrifice for the sake of the whole world. Yet its value cannot be known by anyone who does not believe in Him: this applies only to “whoever believes on Him.” No-one (Jew or Gentile) is excluded except by his own unbelief. This is true as regards the kingdom of God: either one will be blessed in it by having eternal life, or he will perish in the tribulation, and for eternity. Of course it is also true as regards those who now have opportunity to receive Christ. Either they believe Him and have eternal life, or they shall perish eternally.

These Christians therefore see that every believer is warranted to have the fullest assurance of their present and eternal salvation, and that this assurance comes not through feelings or experiences, but by Christ's work once and for all. The believer can never be lost, but is as secure as though he were in heaven already because of Christ's death and resurrection (1 John 3:2, John 10:28-30).

Holiness, we all agree, as divine life goes with the word, is so imperative that without it no one shall see the Lord; and the professing Christian who does not pursue it only deceives himself. It is false and misleading to let people fancy that they may be real saints, yet unholy. "Every one" that has the grace-given hope resting on Him purifies himself as He is pure; others that have not are self-deceived. Because of iniquities the wrath of God cometh upon the sons of disobedience; but believers are essentially sons of obedience, and His love rests on them. If one sin, it is a grievous inconsistency. But grace does not fail to awaken self-judgment through our blessed Advocate with the Father, and restoration ensues. Those who do the wicked works of the flesh, and abide impenitent and indifferent have no part or lot with Christ, shall not inherit the kingdom of God, and in no way share the portion of the saints in light.

p503 [J B Rurkin - probably Purkin, see this letter and other references to JBP in the Bible Treasury.] MY DEAR BROTHER, - The doctrine you refer to is widely spread enough. Zwingli held it: all the Wesleyans hold it and most of the national professors of Christianity. But it is founded on a want of depth and truth in the foundations, denying that we are all lost. The best answer is the very plain statements in the Epistle to the Romans, though these are confirmed by many others. But there is always a want of conviction of sin in these cases: man is not lost, not dead in trespasses and sins, and that is, I am not; for if I have deserved condemnation, it is no difficulty to think we all have. Hence grace, sin, the Lord's death, all lose their import and value and the real way of meeting it morally is to deal with the conscience of the individual. 'So to live that he might be saved' at once shews ignorance of the ways of God in grace - in fact of the gospel, as regards Christ's work. 'Right convictions and good practice' is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:27 does not say a word of the Spirit's acting, and Acts 10:35 says simply that he who is such and such is accepted; it was merely that blessing was not confined to the Jews, as is evident if the passage be read. Romans 2:7, etc., which is the strongest passage, supposes the truth of glory and resurrection known. If I found a Gentile so walking, he is as much saved as a Jew. But it is declared that every mouth is stopped, and all the world guilty before God, that "there is none righteous, no, not one." The condemnation of the heathen is (Rom. 1:18 - 3:19) put upon a ground which negatives the idea of such an universal operation of the Spirit. They are, says the apostle, without excuse, on the double ground of having given up glorifying God when they knew Him, and the testimony of creation adding conscience: a reasoning perfectly futile, and without sense, if there was the other ground of condemnation, namely, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost. They that "have sinned without law shall also perish without law." "The carnal mind is enmity against God," in me, as well as in any other one of the nations. People confound the ground of responsibility with sovereign grace in saving. Genesis 6:3 refers merely to the patience of God in Noah's time.