Thank God. I can know my name is written down in Heaven! For 1 John 5:13 says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." Salvation is not something that we get when we die. Sometimes people very foolishly pray, "Save us at last in Heaven." "At last in Heaven" is not where you get saved. You get saved down here. And one who puts his trust in the Lord Jesus has everlasting life now. The Scripture says, "...we have now received the atonement" (Rom. 5:11). And, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47). Has it now, thank God! One who doesn't trust Jesus is condemned already. So you can know you are saved. - John R. Rice
It is sinful to presume you can add to the saving blood of Christ. It is sinful, it is tragic, for anybody to put some other part into salvation.
Suppose somebody came and said, "All right, now Jesus died for me. That is pretty good payment, but I am going to pay the rest of it myself." Oh, wicked man, will you put any deed you could do, any thought you could think, any word you could utter, any sacrifice you could make, on a par with the death of Jesus on the cross, when He died for your sins? No, you can't add a thing. You disgrace the Gospel. You dishonor God. You cloud the issue when you put anything else in the plan of salvation. John R. Rice
When I was twelve years old in Gainesville, Texas, in a prayer meeting, a woman asked the pastor, "I have a next-door neighbor who says she knows she is going to Heaven. Don't you think it is presumptuous for anybody to think they are good enough to be sure of Heaven?
The pastor very wisely answered, "If you were depending on your good works, it would be very foolish and presumptuous to pretend you were good enough to go to Heaven. But if you trusted Jesus Christ and are relying on His clear promise in the Bible that your sins are forgiven, that you are born again, that you are a child of God and that nothing can separate you from God, you can know and you ought to know."
It is a sad thing, a shocking thing that many people do not know for sure they are saved. - John R. Rice
There is no judgment between death and Heaven for a Christian. There is up in Heaven a judgment seat of Christ where Christians will be rewarded according to their works. It is true that rewards will be different for different Christians, depending on how each lived, but the salvation question and the getting-to-Heaven question is already settled forever. Paul cried in in Romans 8:34, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." I thank God that one can know he is going to Heaven. - John R. Rice
Men who write books about their heroes make much of their good points, and gloss over or excuse their sins and failures. Men who write books about their enemies make much of their sins and failures, and gloss over their good qualities. But the Bible, written by an honest and holy God, simply tells the truth about mankind. We are a race of sinners, and the best men that ever lived still sinned. - John R. Rice
When a centurion who came to Jesus, asking healing for a servant, humbly said, "Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed," Jesus was greatly pleased and said, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel" (Matt. 8:5-10). This centurion was probably an Italian, certainly not a Jew, but he had much to teach Jews as well as Christians!
The division of people into sects and denominations has some good points but it also has great hindrances to the cause of Christ. It is not wrong that people should have strong convictions, and I do not say that Christians should lightly give up their convictions where there are honest differences of opinion about minor doctrines of the Bible. But I do say that God would be greatly honored if Christians love one another, and if Christian fellowship should cross over the boundaries of denominations and sects. - John R. Rice
Many a man intends to be saved, but he intends to be saved tomorrow and tomorrow never comes. He intends to be saved sometime, but his heart gets no more tender with waiting, his mind gets no clearer, his will grows no firmer. The contrary is true. His heart and mind and will harden against God and so he is never saved. Therefore the Scripture here says, "Let us hasten therefor to enter into that rest." Today, look to Jesus, trust in Him and be saved at once. Let Heaven come into your heart. - John R. Rice
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