Heaven or Hell
Sin (rebellion against God), is what separates us from God and is the reason why God wants us to stay obedient to Him. It’s for our own good, like when a parent yells at a child not to run into a busy intersection. As parents we don’t want anything bad to happen to our kids.
When God created human beings, he made us immortal. Yes we have physical bodies that die at some point usually less than 100 years old. But we also have spirits which live on eternally. Our spirits have only two places to go when we die, Heaven where we can live eternally under the loving care of our heavenly Father, or Hell, where those who reject God will be eternally separated from God along with the other angelic beings who rebelled against Him. Hell is a place of eternal torment with no hope of ever escaping. This is not a place anyone should even joke about going to. It’s a horrible place of darkness and torment. Your worst day on Earth is way better than your best day in Hell would ever be.
God is a merciful, loving God who does not want anyone to go to Hell. I often hear people who don’t understand God say that they can’t serve a God who would throw people into Hell. This is a total misunderstanding of God and his love and mercy. God made a way for us to avoid Hell as I will explain shortly. If anyone ends up in Hell it’s because they rejected God, not the other way around.
Atonement for Sin
The book of Leviticus – Old Testament
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew people were required to make animal sacrifices to God to atone for their sins. This may seem like a barbaric practice, but there is a lot of symbolism wrapped up in this practice. And at the time, the Hebrew people lived in an agrarian society, so animals were very valuable to them.
There were 613 Levitical laws that were to be obeyed. These laws were to be strictly adhered to or a person could face serious punishment including death. Again, seems very harsh for a loving God, but there was a purpose for all of this. One of the purposes was to show that humans are incapable of being good enough for a Holy God without the help of a Savior.
Passover Meal
Mark 14, Luke 22
Toward the end of Jesus’ 3 year ministry, some people began to turn against him. They were expecting a warrior type savior who would conquer the Romans and free the Israelites from Roman rule. Most of the religious people at the time wanted to kill him because they believed he was blasphemer by referring to himself as the Son of God.
During the Passover festival, Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate with his disciples. He instructed his disciples to prepare a room for them to commune with each other, and participate in the Passover Supper. During the Passover Supper which consisted of bread and wine, among other items, Jesus broke the bread and told his disciples that the bread represented his body, broken for them. He also shared with them the wine which he said represented his blood shed for them. This is where the Christian tradition of Communion comes from. The disciples did not fully understand at the time, but later all the pieces came together into what we now call the Gospel of Jesus Christ.