Only two kinds of people exist temporarily on this planet. One guess might be men and women. Apparently, you aren’t aware of the new superstore, ‘Genders”R”Us?’ Don’t like your gender? Visit this store and find one that fits you. It operates like the Build-A-Bear store. You simply create a gender that fits you. But I digress.
Or you might guess Democrats and Republicans? Don’t go there. How about rich people and poor people? Too relative. Cub fans and Cardinal fans? Too narrow—leaves out the Yankee fans. And good riddance, I say.
We need context. Millions of people have already exchanged their 80 years or so on this planet for a life in the next phase of their existence—eternal life. Therefore, that eternal existence logically carries astronomic weight compared to this finite life. It’s like comparing one grain of sand to the 7.6 sextillion grains of sand in the Sahara Desert. Your one grain of sand life here transforms into over 7.6 sextillion grains of sand life in eternity.
For you mathematicians, allow the following equation to represent this life and eternal life: 1 < 76,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Therefore, it is crucial for everyone to understand the overwhelming length of every person’s time in the next life compared to his time in his present life.
Simply, our earth currently houses people who will spend eternity either in hell or heaven. No other possible destination exists. We currently enjoy careers, families and hobbies. We possess different skin colors. We live in the country or in the city. However, as each person leaves this life, he comes before the Creator, who assigns each person to either heaven or hell forever.
How does God go about making His decision? It depends upon what each person does with His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Everyone can recite John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
What does ‘believes in Him’ mean? It doesn’t merely mean we believe Jesus existed. God has centered everything in life around relationships. His commandments focus on our relationships with Him and with each other. That’s the crux of ‘believes in Him.’ To gain heaven, we must possess this trusting, vibrant relationship with Him.
We trust He is the Messiah spoken of throughout the Old Testament, the Messiah who will save the world from all evil and suffering. We discover no higher Source exists—not a king, nor a prime minister, nor a president. Yet, this highest Source desires to have relationship with us. He invites us to come to Him, to dwell with Him. With enlightened wisdom, we accept that life-giving invitation.
But that’s only the first step. When a person dies and stands before God, he might expect this question: “How did you respond to the truth of my Son?” The person declares, “Yes, I believed.”
God’s second question might be this: “What did you do in response to your belief?” When a person puts his trust in Christ, the rest of his life should be lived as a perpetual ‘thank you’ for the gift of salvation. That means he becomes a part of a church family in order to serve others, to worship His Savior, and to learn more about God through His revealed Word. He desires friends and families to know Jesus as he knows Him. So he learns to share the Gospel. He finds ministries in his community in which to get involved.
James 2:14 describes the alternative: “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but no works? Can that faith save him?” James answers that question three verses later: “Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”
Only two kinds of people exist in the world. Those who put their trust in Christ, with that trust in full display through the work they do for Him, or those who never put their trust in Him. The shelf bearing all their ‘thank you, Lord’ work sits empty. Eighty years or so pass for each person. What follows is their eternal destination: heaven or hell. Only two kinds of people exist temporarily in this world.