The Message

As a "Born Again" Christian, Jeremy often teaches the "good news" that we can have a relationship with God, and go to Heaven. This is something that he demonstrates through Gospel Illusions.

Everybody goes either to Heaven or to Hell when they die.  Heaven is so much better than anything on earth. It’s impossible to imagine how wonderful it will be. But Hell is the opposite, it’s absolute torture, far worse than anything we will ever experience here on earth. Obviously Heaven is where we want to go. But there’s a problem, as human beings, we are sinners, and sin cannot enter into Heaven. Some people think they are not sinners, but in the Bible, in Roman’s 3:10 it says “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Some people are obviously much worse than others, but even the best people do things that God doesn’t like. So how can we go to Heaven if we are sinners? The answer is Jesus Christ!

About 2000 years ago, God sent His son Jesus to earth to save us. Since we are sinners, we deserve to be punished. But Jesus willingly died on a cross to take the punishment for us. In Romans 5:8 it says “But God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And though He died, three days later He rose from the dead. He had victory over sin. Now He offers us forgiveness, it’s a free gift that He will gladly give to anyone who’s willing to receive it. In Romans 6:23 it says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” All that we have to do is accept Him as our Savior. What this means is that we have to believe in Him (that Jesus was God, and that He died on the cross and rose again). And we have to confess to Him that we are sinners and ask him to ask Him to forgive us. It is when we do this that we become Christians, which is also known as being “born again”. Romans 10:9 says “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Sadly many people think there are other ways to Heaven. One of the most common beliefs is that we simply need to live good lives, so that our good can outweigh our bad. But contrary to popular belief, good deeds do not erase bad. If you have a bucket of muddy water, adding clean water will not fix it, it will still be muddy no matter how much clean water is added. The same is true with sin. In Ephesians 2:8 and 9 it says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Some people think that going to church will get them to Heaven. Everyone should attend church; it’s where we go to learn about God, worship Him and have fellowship with others. But there’s nothing magical about church that will get rid of sin and take us to Heaven. Another common belief is that getting baptized will get us to Heaven. But baptism is how we identify with Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, it’s not what cleanses us from sin. Until we are Christians, getting baptized doesn’t actually mean anything, no matter who performs it. In John 3:3 Jesus said “Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jesus is the only way to Heaven. In John 3:16 it says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

If you are ready to accept Him as your savior, pray to Him in words like these: “Dear God I know that I am a sinner. I believe that You died on the cross and rose again. Lord Jesus please forgive me of my sins, I accept You alone as my savior. Amen”