If Jesus took all sin into His heart and died, how did He go to Heaven?

Great question! The truth is Jesus never sinned. He (amazingly!) took the sins of the world upon himself as part of God’s plan to save us from being separated from Him forever.

 

Do you remember that in the Old Testament days, animals were sacrificed to pat the price for sin? The blood  of the sacrificed animals was traded to cover the sins of men. The animals never sinned, but were sacrificed in exchange for human sin.

 

Animal sacrifices, however, could never be enough to fully cover human sin. God’s plan required blood from a perfect, sinless person. This is because our perfect and holy God cannot be anywhere near sin. Of course, it was impossible to find a perfect and holy person since we all have sinned and fallen short of the perfection God requires. So, God sent His One and Only Son to be that perfect, sinless sacrifice in our place. 

 

Jesus took our place and endured the punishment that we all deserve, even though He had never sinned. Because of His sacrifice, God was able to us as if we were perfect and sinless like Jesus. And even though Jesus accepted all our sin onto Himself, He was still perfect and sinless! That is why Jesus was able to ascend into Heaven and is alive today at the right hand of God.

 

This is why we now can be sure of having eternal life with God in Heaven, because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Of course, we still have a part to do … though it’s actually pretty easy: You simply have to accept Jesus  as your Savior and accept His gift of grace!

 

If you know that what you’re about to do is wrong and you think that you will just ask for forgiveness later, will God forgive you?

Wow! Great question! And it’s also a very complicated question with an equally complex answer. The Apostle Paul talks about this very subject in the book of Romans, Chapter 6. The whole chapter is devoted to us being dead to sin but alive in Christ and that we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. The subject is so critical that Paul writes, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!” (Romans 6:1) And he later repeats himself when he says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:15)

What Paul is saying is that just because God will forgive you doesn’t give you the excuse to commit the sin, especially when you know it’s wrong. It all has to do with your heart. Are you truly sorry? Are you truly repentant? Or do you think because you know God forgives sins, you’ll be okay?

Let’s look at another very important scripture verse that deals specifically with this: it’s Hebrews 10:26-27. It says, “If we keep deliberately sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”

God does not take this stuff lightly. If you know it’s wrong and you intentionally do it because you think by asking for forgiveness later you’ll be forgiven, God says there is no sacrifice for that. You must truly be sorry and never do it again. Only God knows your heart. But, when He knows you are truly sorry and that you won’t do it again and that you were silly for thinking you could do it and expecting forgiveness … believe it or not, then God will forgive you! He knows you are sincere in your apology.

Are Christians the same as Jews?

That is an interesting question because Jesus was born a Jew, wasn’t he? So, if Jesus was Jewish and was even called “King of the Jews,” then it stands to reason that Christians are the same as Jews, right? Well, that’s not true, of course.

While many of the original Christians were probably Jewish, when Christ was crucified and then He was resurrected, they realized that he was the long-awaited Messiah and the early Christians started their own church based on the teachings of Jesus. This is all described in the first two chapters of the Book of Acts. While they still believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob from the Old Testament, they knew that Jesus was the Son of God and that they didn’t need a Rabbi or any religious leader to perform religious rituals for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus offered them salvation and a personal relationship with God through his sacrifice on the cross.

Peter, one of Jesus’ original disciples, became the first Christian priest. The rest of the disciples followed suit and spread the good news of Jesus throughout the land. Many people during this time converted to this new belief but there were still many who did not convert. Many of the people in Jerusalem refused to convert and sided with the Pharisee’s and continued to practice their Jewish faith.

That’s why, even today, there are Jews in Israel and they don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God.