Pastor Mark Jones: What Does the Bible Says About Who Will Go to Heaven?
God's people are allowed to enter Heaven thanks to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and their relationship to justification, adoption, and sanctification, Pastor Mark Jones says.
Jones, who serves as senior minister of Faith Vancouver Presbyterian Church in Canada, wrote in a blog post for the Christian website DesiringGod.org that when asking why God allows His people into Heaven, Christians need only look at the Holy Trinity and these three blessings as guidance.
For the first point, Jones explains that Christians are justified by God's Son.
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Thanks to Jesus, "we are justified through faith alone," the minister says. "This means not only that our sins are forgiven, but that, through faith, we receive the righteousness of Christ by God's gracious imputation."
"We can stand before the tribunal of God with as much assurance of our righteousness as Christ does before the Father. Not because God accepts our imperfection, but because God demands perfection from all who would enter life, and in Christ we possess a perfect righteousness by imputation," Jones continues. "This is why justification cannot be revoked. This is why we cannot lose our salvation."
For the second point, Jones explains that Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit.
"Our identity is not simply that we are in Christ, but that we are Spirit-filled in Christ. Because we are united to Christ, we also are united to the Holy Spirit," Jones explains. "The Spirit's work in us in this life does not reach perfection, but it is still his work."
Lastly, we are welcomed into Heaven because we are children of the father, Jones adds.
"God's fatherly care is upon us so that He becomes responsible for our well-being," the minister writes, adding that "when we die, God is responsible for our well-being."
"For God the Father to bar His children from Heaven, He would have to excommunicate Himself. For a good Father can never be estranged from His children," Jones emphasizes.
John Piper, the founder and teacher of DesiringGod.org, has also written on the topic of the Holy Trinity, explaining in a previous post in 2009 that when Christians contemplate who in the Trinity they should pray to, they should follow the Bible's Words.
"Follow in general the pattern of the Bible, namely, pray to the Father in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit, that is, in reliance upon the help of the Spirit," Piper says. "But, from time to time, 'Maranatha! Lord Jesus, come!' is not a bad prayer. And 'Holy Spirit, fall upon us and grant us a fresh baptism' is not a bad prayer."
"So, in general, pray to the Father; but occasionally, to express their Personhood and your own love for them, telling the Spirit and the Son that you love them and that you would like them to come in fullness is a good thing."
