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On a scale from 1 to 100, how sure are you that when you die you will go to Heaven? Are you sure you will not go? Are you 25% sure you will go? Are your chances 50-50? Are you basically sure, say 85%? Are you 100% sure? Where are you in your thinking about your eternal destiny?
Would it be a surprise to you if you were to read in the Bible that you should be 100% sure? The apostle John wrote that we can know that we have eternal life (I John 5:11-13). That is 100% certainty. But, isn't it awfully arrogant for anyone to claim that when he dies he will go straight to Heaven and be accepted by God? That depends... It might actually be awfully arrogant to say a person can't know for sure.
You see, arrogance is simply the human denial of what God says is true, or the human insistence that something is true that God says is false. After all, God is, by definition, omniscient. That means He knows all things. Therefore, if He says something is true, anyone who contradicts Him is operating in arrogance because all creatures are creatures. That means that they are not omniscient and never will be. For someone who doesn't know everything to tell Someone who does that He is wrong is foolish to the extreme.
Now, is it arrogance for a human being to be 100% sure that he is going to heaven when he dies? Well, it is if he thinks he is going on the basis of his own personal goodness or on the basis of his own obedience to the commandments of God. Why is that arrogant? Because God says that everyone has sinned and there are no exceptions. He also says that if anyone has sinned, he is qualified for Hell. That means no one goes to Heaven because he is qualified by his own actions of goodness. Anyone who thinks he is good enough for God's heaven certainly will not be there to mess it up for those with enough humility to realize they have sinned. Thus, if a person is 100% sure he is going on the basis of his own performance, he is 100% wrong, and will not go to Heaven.
On the other hand, the Bible says that Jesus lived sinlessly and died in the place of sinners. This means that if a person is not 100% sure he is going to Heaven, it means that he thinks there is something flawed about the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus for sin, or the promise of God that life comes from faith in the death of Jesus. You see, if there is nothing wrong with the sinlessness of Jesus, and there is nothing flawed about His death in our place, there is no reason to not be 100% sure of Heaven when we die. Our certainty is not based upon what we do but what He has done.
Therefore, it is arrogance to claim that Jesus' death wasn't a sufficient payment for our sins. So, instead of it being arrogant to be 100% sure you are going to Heaven when you die, it is actually arrogant to reject that certainty, because it is a rejection of Jesus and His work.
So, let me ask you again, how sure are you that you are going to Heaven when you die? How many of your sins did Jesus die for? Was it 25%, 50%, 85%, or 100%?