Hebrews 5 Lesson

HOW DO I GET TO HEAVEN

Many people believe in Heaven, but not everyone understands how to get there, and that is a problem!

In today’s lesson, we will answer the question:

• “How do I get to Heaven?

Our lesson includes all related scriptures, and is broken down into two parts:

1. The superior sacrifice of Jesus,
2. Five matters of salvation that are required for us to go to Heaven.

THE SUPERIOR SACRIFICE OF JESUS

In Hebrews Chapter 5, the Hebrew writer talks about Jesus being our High Priest, and why He is superior to all previous sacrifices made under the law. 

Before Jesus, people had to repeatedly offer up animal sacrifices for their sins. 

One can imagine that there was a sense of relief each time that an animal was sacrificed on one’s behalf.  

For a moment, they probably felt restored and relieved.

But what about the next sin? 

Or the one after that?   

Before Jesus, sacrifices had to continuously be made as new sins were committed. 

Thankfully, Jesus changed all that. 

Once Jesus offered up His body on the cross, no other sacrifices would ever be necessary. 

As the Hebrew writer put it:

• “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” – Hebrews 10:10.

Jesus’ perfect sacrifice was part of God’s plan since the beginning of time. 

As Jesus said during His Sermon on the Mount:

• “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” - Mathew 5:17.

And because Jesus paid the price “once for all,” (Hebrews 10:10) animal sacrifices are no longer necessary. 

That does not mean that we can or should continue to live in sin.

Far from it! 

Being a Christian is about living lives that glorify God and serve others.  Learning how to do that in a sinful world requires a solid understanding of the Scriptures, God's help, and the support of those around us.

FIVE MATTERS OF SALVATION

According to the Bible, there are five matters of salvation that are required for us to go to Heaven.

They are:

1. Believe in Jesus.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” –  Acts 16:31, 
2. Confess our belief in Him.  “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” –  Romans 10:10, 
3. Repent (turn away from) of our sins.  “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” –  Luke 13:3, 
4. Be baptized.  “ Baptism  now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ .” –  1 Peter 3:21  and “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” –  Mark 16:16, 
5. Obey God’s commandments.  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”  –  Mathew 7:21. 

We will look at these one at a time and then the lesson will be yours.

BELIEF IN JESUS

Our road to Heaven starts and ends with belief in Jesus.  Consider these five verses:

1. “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.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” - John 3:16-17,
2. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” - Acts 16:31,
3. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” - John 5:24,
4. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” - John 14:6,
5. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” - John 6:47.

BAPTISM

Once we have established our belief in Jesus, we need to be obedient to the Gospel through baptism.

Consider the following three verses:

1. “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” - Mark 16:16,
2. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” - John 3:5,
3. “Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” - 1 Peter 3:21.

CONFESSING JESUS AS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR

In addition to believing in Jesus and being baptized, we must also confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior if we want to go to Heaven. 

The Apostle Paul wrote about this in his letter to the Romans:

• “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9-10.

It is not good enough to quietly believe in Jesus and go about our lives.  Being a disciple of Jesus means sharing with others who Jesus is, and what He has done for us, as Luke wrote about in his gospel:

• “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” - Luke 9:26.

REPENTING OF OUR SINS

Every single one of us is a sinner!

The Bible makes that perfectly clear in the following two scriptures:

1. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -Romans 3:23,
2. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” -1 John 1:8.

Fortunately for us, God and Jesus have prepared a way for us to have our sins permanently removed so that they will not count against us on Judgment Day.

The way that we do that is through a process called repentance.

To repent means, “To turn away.”  

And for Christians, repentance means turning away from our sinful, self-serving behavior, and turning toward God.  

A repentant soul focuses on serving God and others, not themselves.  

Sometimes we may repent of our sins right away.  

For other sins, the process may take years.  

Even though God is patient, we do not want to wait too long to repent once we become aware of our sins and the role that repentance plays in our salvation.

The Bible says:

• “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” –1 John 1:9. 

Jesus lets us know that repenting of our sins is necessary for salvation in the following scripture:

• “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” -Luke 13:3.

OBEYING GOD’S COMMANDMENTS

The fifth matter of salvation discussed in the Bible is obedience to God’s commandments.

During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

• “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven will enter.” – Mathew 7:21. 

And while none of us will ever be able to keep God's commandments all the time, we must try.

The character is in the trying!

CONCLUSION

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He replied:

• “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Mathew 22:37-40.

Jesus also said:

• “If you love Me, keep you will keep My commandments.” –  John 14:15.

Think about that.

The most important thing to God and Jesus is that we love Them.  And the way that we show Them that we love Them is by keeping Their commandments.

Understanding the importance of keeping God's commands, we must work every day to understand how God wants us to live our lives, and then do our best to do that.

This can be difficult in a world that is ruled by Satan.

But we must try.   

The character is in the trying!

And it all begins with a solid understanding of the Bible.  

After all, how can we obey the Bible if we do not understand what it says? Can we rely on our own beliefs of what is right or wrong and please God?

Not according to the Bible.

The Book of Proverbs tells us, "There is a way which seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death." -  Proverbs 14:12.

The way that we please God is to learn His commandments, and then live lives trying to keep them by glorifying God and serving others.  

In today’s lesson, we pointed out five matters of salvation that are required for us to get to Heaven:

1. Belief in Jesus,
2. Being baptized,
3. Confessing our belief in Jesus,
4. Repenting of our sins,
5. Obeying God’s commandments.

We will end today’s lesson with the following scripture that describes the majesty of Heaven. 

It is a place more beautiful than any of us can imagine.  And it is forever for those who are saved.  

• “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:3-4.