THESE ARE WRITTEN

John 20:31

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

There is no doubt when it comes to the promises of God. He has made his will abundantly clear. His will, his desire, his passion, is for all men to know that they may have an absolute assurance of eternal life. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. His Kingdom is not a transitory Kingdom, but an eternal Kingdom. He made mankind to live with him forever. Many have foolishly rejected this offer of eternal life, and they will suffer the consequences. But praise God, many have accepted the offer of eternal life, and now they are on the straight and narrow road which leads to Heaven.
Where is the path leading to eternal life? Where is the road leading to God's eternal Kingdom? Why, the path is Christ, of course. Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord and Master over death and hell, he is the only way, the only truth, the only life. This is the one message, the one faith of the Kingdom. Those who inherit this Kingdom will come only one way; through faith in Christ. There is no other road available to the weary travelers who seek eternal rest for their souls. There is no other path which guarantees eternal bliss. There is no other Savior, but the One who rose from the dead.
2 Pet 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Even under the most ideal circumstances, Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. Even under the most adverse conditions, Job made the right choice. God knows how much each person can bear, and by his grace he only allows us so much freedom of choice. He limits the power of evildoers to wreak havoc so they can't destroy everything in their path, and he limits the power of the righteous to prosper so they won't destroy themselves. He won't put us through tests he knows we couldn't pass, so if we are tested, we accept it as God's will and let it go at that. If it were not for his great grace, power, and mercy, none of us would make the right choices. He does everything he can in his power to see that we are able to choose rightly, but the final decision is always left up to us.
People go to hell, simply because they choose to. They make the choice as to whether they accept God's offer of salvation, or whether they reject it. Everyone has a free will, and everyone has just as much power to exercise their free will as the next person. We all have the power to choose, and the choice is left up to each of us how we use this power. No one can say they can't go to Heaven, if they really want to go to Heaven, for the only thing God has required of men in order to enter Heaven, is that they choose to accept the gift of salvation. The simple choice each person must make is this: am I going to believe, or am I not going to believe?
Believing is an act of free will. The believer believes, the unbeliever doesn't. It's that simple. God couldn't have made it any easier. It's no harder to make the right choice now, than it was in the Garden of Eden. Shall I eat the forbidden fruit, or shall I refrain from eating? This was the only choice Adam and Eve had to make. Eve's choice was to believe what the devil said, rather than believe what God said. She made the wrong choice and died, just as God warned she would when she ate of the tree. Many have gone to hell because they made the wrong choice. They were warned, but they didn't believe God. They chose not to accept the gift of Jesus Christ.
Choose life. Choose to believe God. Want what God wants for you. Choose not to go to hell. Choose to go to Heaven. Unbelievers end up choosing a sad and pitiful substitute for Heaven. They think they can create their own heaven here on earth. They lust after the flesh. They commit lustful acts. Then they think the pleasure they feel is better than going to Heaven and living forever with God. They don't even have enough confidence or faith in God to believe that he has anything better for them than their sinful pleasures, so they cast God behind their backs. They convince themselves that there is no God. They say hell is a scare tactic invented to make people obey foolish rules. They don't know their life could be so much better, if only they chose to believe God. They would find in him a much better life, a new life, a new way of thinking, and a new joy they had never imagined possible. Alas, they believe the devil and end up regretting their wrong choice for eternity. Why don't people believe that God only wants the best for their life?
Sadly, far too many have chosen wrongly. They are ignorant of the promises made by God in his word. They have lost their way in the confusion of their mind and in the passions of their flesh. Their hearts have been made hard by the evil in this world. It seems they cannot believe, even if they would. Their hearts are stubborn. They do not believe in a loving God. They cannot comprehend how God could care for them so much that he provided a way of escape from their sins. They cannot rise to the level of faith needed to believe in an all-loving, all-merciful God. They do not accept the eternal life being offered to them as a gift. For some reason, they do not seem to realize what they are turning down. Their eyes are blinded, and they grope around in the dark looking for something which they are never able to find. All their searching ends at the grave. All their hopes die with them.
But we have this one hope to rejoice in; that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and save them to the uttermost. What was lacking in us, is now made complete in Christ. We have received the gift of eternal life, and for us this has made all the difference. It has set our feet on the right road. We are walking on a bright path. Life now has meaning and our heart is made glad. We go through life, facing adversity and hardship with a smile, because we know this life is a vapor and soon we will go to a much better place. We have received the life of God in our heart, and we live with the ever-present knowledge that this life is ours forever. We've already found what we were looking for. Our real hope lies beyond the grave.
Yes, the flesh can drag us down, as we go about our daily life subject to all the afflictions and temptations known to men. We see what is happening in the world today, and we are saddened. Yet we take hope. Our Savior told us that when these troubles begin to come to pass, we are to lift up our head and rejoice, because soon our redemption draws near. We have fixed our mind on the City of God, a city not built by human hands and which can never be destroyed. We have no abiding country here, for we have a country in the heavens, prepared for us by the risen Man, Christ Jesus, who waits for us there. Thus our flesh is made strong by the hope we have in our heart of eternal life.
This hope makes us strong against temptation. The temptations which come to lure us from our faith in Jesus. The temptations which come to separate us from our relationship with Jesus Christ. The temptations which come to weaken our faith and shake our confidence in a better world. The hope of eternal life causes us to look away from these fleshly temptations, and dream of joys and pleasures which last forever. We have an awareness we never had before, of how short this life on earth is, and we are loath to trade our everlasting soul for the lusts and desires we suffer in the flesh. When once our eyes have been opened to see what awaits us in Heaven, the things of earth lose their luster. And through it all, Jesus is our constant companion, for he understands our weaknesses, and he knows how to deliver us from temptation.
1 Jn 5:13
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
The contemplation of eternity is the chief joy of the believer. It is the contemplation of eternity which strengthens our faith. It is the contemplation of eternity which gives us hope. It is the contemplation of eternity which makes our life worth living, and brings purpose to every moment of every day. It is the contemplation of eternity which gives us the ability to love and forgive, for we know our God will make things right when others harm us. We only want others to have what we have. What we have is eternal life and forgiveness of our sins; something the world doesn't have. The contemplation of eternity is not only comprised of an assurance of eternal life, but also of an awareness of eternal justice, the awareness that in the end, God will right every wrong. When we contemplate eternity, we have an abiding sense of the love of God toward us, a love which will never end for all eternity. This is precisely what makes us strong in the face of all adversity.
Believers have faced famines, floods, fires, trials, persecution, tests, even death, with equanimity and peace of mind and heart, because they knew none of these things truly mattered in the light of eternity. What matters to the believer in Christ, whose faith rests only in his goodness and mercy, is that Christ has promised to never leave us or forsake us. We have a friend who will keep us in every trial, and will bring us through every storm. We are safe in the midst of the valley of death, because our soul rests safely in the everlasting arms of God. Our light affliction is but for a moment, but the glory of eternal life goes on forever. The promise of eternal life makes us victorious in every situation we encounter in life. The more we contemplate eternity, and what Christ has done for us in his work of redemption, the more our joy rises and our love increases. We could live every moment in the contemplation of eternity. It is what we were made for. It is what every human heart longs for, whether we believe in Jesus or not. No one wants life to end. This desire for eternal life was placed within us by our Creator. It is part of every human heart.
Unbelievers do not like to contemplate death, which is only natural. We naturally abhor the thought of death, loss, and the end of life. We all want to live, and we want to live the best life we possibly can. This is why we are constantly seeking to improve the quality of our life. We are constantly seeking to find more fulfillment in life. We want everything out of life we can possibly get. We want to live life to the fullest. This is a basic desire of all human beings, and it was placed there by our Creator. It was placed there that we might seek after him. It was placed there that we might avoid the penalty of death. For unbelievers, death means the end of all that's good in life, but for the believer, death is a new beginning.
The contemplation of eternity even encompasses the contemplation of death for the believer, for death is the passage by which we enter the riches of Heaven to dwell in the presence of God. Heaven is not only things eternal, although we will have and hold many things in Heaven. We will walk on streets of gold. We will live in mansions more beautiful than any earthly palace. We will have every possible desire fulfilled to the full. But most of all, we will be with Jesus. We will see God face to face, and we will be with all the believers of all the ages. The true bliss of eternity will be that we are one with God and with each other. It will be the presence of pure love that will make Heaven what it is. And as the backdrop for this place of pure bliss and love, will be a world more majestic and more magnificent than any tongue could ever tell, or any mind could ever conceive.
Dan 4:34
Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
The Kingdom of God gives substance to the contemplation of eternity. We all have had the earth as our birthplace, and it is our home for as long as we live in this fleshly body, and it is upon this very same earth that the Lord Jesus shall establish his Kingdom. Upon these same hills, upon these same oceans, and upon these same plains shall his glory be seen. For a thousand years, we shall see the sun rise and set upon his Kingdom. Every island will know that Christ reigns. Every nation will give homage to our Lord. Every city will be filled with the knowledge of our God. Every house will be under his rule. Every person will know Christ is the Son of God, and we are his sons and daughters. We will rule over every person who is yet breathing when Christ returns, through the authority he has given us. We will walk with angels and with our Lord upon the very same soil where we lived, and worked, and died. This is why the Kingdom gives substance to our contemplation of eternity. We know what we will be doing and where we will be ruling. This earth will be our inheritance, and the nations will acknowledge us as kings.
People in ages past have come and gone, and many of them lived their lives in vain. They refused to come to Christ and accept the offer of eternal life. They are gone now and will forever be forgotten. The memory of the wicked will perish from the earth. Their names will be mentioned no more. How sad it is that they chose to be enemies of the cross, rather than to be saved by it. Yet we must not weep for them, for there is nothing that can be done for them now. Rather, weep for yourself, if you cannot find it in your heart to accept Christ. And if you have accepted Christ, weep for those who for one reason or another have not accepted him. Believer, do not weep for yourself. You have nothing to be sad about. You may have lost someone very close to you to an untimely death, you may have lost your means of making a living, you may have lost your home, you may have lost all you have, but if you have faith in our Lord Jesus, then you have all you need. You have eternal life. You have eternity to rejoice in and you need not weep, except for others who have everything it seems, but Christ.
On history's final day, after the nations make one last stand against our Lord and Savior, then the most amazing thing since creation will occur. God the Father will roll up the universe like an old newspaper, consume it all in one great fire, and out of the fire he will create a new universe. The New Heaven and the New Earth is the final destination of every child of God. Time will be no more and eternity will begin, as we live through the ages in the Kingdom of God, untouched forever by decay, corruption, and evil. So let us practice the contemplation of eternity daily. Let us never allow the time and space in which we live, to drag us down again. Let us rather lift up our eyes to the skies, because our redemption draws nigh, and so maintain our faith strong to the end and receive the reward of eternal life with Christ, world without end. This is how it will be, for thus it is written. To him belongs all the glory, honor, and praise forever!