According to the "Parade Magazine" poll I referenced in this blog yesterday, fewer than half the US population today believes that people go to heaven or hell after death as a result of their actions on earth. Yet 62% do believe their souls will live on after death, and expect that they will be reunited with loved ones who have gone on before. So apparently there is a sense of immortality among many today, but that appears to have little to do with one's behavior, according to the poll. This view is not particularly consistent with the biblical perspective.
In the Bible, the issue of life after life is related to the resurrection, caused by God, not the result of an innate quality of immortality. Death is real. Christ's triumph over sin and death after his crucifixion offers to those who believe in him the assurance of resurrection through him. The words of G.F. Handel's Messiah, quoting scripture, come to mind: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive!"
The gospel does not require moral perfection from us to "go to heaven" when we die. It does offer us eternal life when we believe in God's Son, Jesus Christ. Our salvation -- deliverance from the judgment of sin and death -- is not earned in any sense, but is a gift of divine grace experienced through faith here and now, and eternally in the Presence of the Lord.
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