Salvation is for the Living

   Some people have asked if Christians could intercede on behalf of a person who died without receiving Christ, so such a person could go to heaven instead of hell. The answer is No. “For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth” Isaiah 38:18-19. Anyone who didn’t receive Christ while on earth stands condemned. In John 3:18, Jesus said, “… but he that believeth not is condemned already….”  So, the one who dies without knowing Christ, died in condemnation, and it would be of no use praying for such a one to go to heaven because the choice of whether to make heaven or not is personal one.

  It’s important to realize that the salvation message is for the living and not the dead. You can only receive Christ as Lord and Saviour in response to the Gospel while you’re still in the earth. Jesus said, “Go ye into the entire world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” Mark 16:15-16. Only the living can believe and saved.

   The Bible says whosoever shall upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Romans 10:13; only the living can make that call. But “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” This is the reason God has sent you to be the preacher to take the message of Christ’s salvation to those in your world- your friends, associates and loved ones, so they could hear the message, believe and be saved before it’s too late.

   For anyone to neglect and not respond positively to  the salvation message while still on the earth amounts to willful rejection of the Lord’s free offer of salvation. The consequence for this rejection is condemnation: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” John 3:19-21.

 Thus, we ought to keep spreading the message of the Gospel around the world with great passion and urgency. We have to give men the opportunity to be saved and become citizens of heaven while they’re here on earth, for they’ll have no opportunity afterwards.