Throughout this week, I have been pointed to the ways God is family-oriented, I am seeing how Godly families here on earth foreshadow the big happy Godly family that we would have in heaven. As I proceed with this blog post, I would share about four verses from the bible, give my insight and by God’s grace we would be able to draw answers to the question – Why would a good God send people to Hell?
The first verse is Deuteronomy 8:5, which says that “just as a father disciplines his son, so does our Father in heaven discipline His children”. Meditating on this word brings the imagination of a family into my mind; every Godly family that is concerned with raising great kids is usually characterized by disciplining of the children in that family. The next verse I would touch on is Romans 8:29 – For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. yet again, I see a vivid picture of a family here, a very big family at that. I see a family where God is our father, Jesus is our big brother, and every single believer that lived for Jesus till the end. This big happy family although kick starts here on earth in the church, it continues for eternity in heaven.
And finally, the last book of the bible we shall look into is Revelation 21:10,23,26-27. Verse 10 explains to us a revelation of the new and Holy City of Jerusalem where brothers and sisters in Christ would live forever. The verses that follow go ahead to describe how beautiful, and flawless the city is. “The city has no need for sun or moon because the glory of God illuminates the city and the lamb is its light”, reads Revelation 21:23. How glorious this city would be, don’t you think? Even more so, verse 25 tells us how there would never be darkness because the Lord’s glory lights up the place continuously. Given these flawless descriptions of the new Jerusalem where we would live forever, the content in verse 26 only makes perfect sense to me. Revelation 21:27 says that “nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life”. God wants a flawless city, heaven filled with :
- brothers and sisters who would not spite one another,
- brothers and sisters who are filled with love,
- brothers, and sisters who conform to the perfect image of Jesus Christ.
So you see, going to hell or heaven is actually up to us, it depends on how we choose to live out our lives. Either we choose to live like Jesus Christ who is pure, Holy, filled with compassion and so much light or we choose to live like the devil who reeks in pride, jealousy, anger, strife, and the likes. The way we live here and whose image we choose to conform to determines the family we would spend eternity. I do hope that you choose the family of Christ today, I pray that you keep choosing to conform to His image daily because I would love to see you all in the city that is filled with light and is flawless forever.