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[Plumpo]

What did Jesus say about getting into heaven? I'm familiar with the parable of the sheep and the goats where Jesus says that whatever you do for the "least of these brothers and sisters" you do for him. To me, that implies that if you are nice and give to or take care of poor people, you'll get into heaven. Conversely, if you are a dick and don't give to or take care of poor people, you'll go to hell.

Did Jesus say anything else directly about how to get eternal life, or eternal punishment?

[Hollands]

What a fantastic question!

Jesus said a lot about eternal life and eternal punishment.

If you can, I highly recommend reading through one of the gospels a few times and just writing everything that Jesus says about eternal life and death in a separate notebook. It's often said that Jesus is actually the Bible character who talks about hell the most (12 times I think) and that's before we even start talking about eternal life.

I'll stick with Mark and John as they're the two gospels that I know best:

Mark As somebody very helpfully pointed out, Jesus bursts onto the scene in Mark 1, proclaiming that "The time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel." This centres Jesus at the very heart of this good news. Why has the time been fulfilled? Why is the kingdom now at hand, because Jesus is here! What an arrogant statement that is. Unless of course Jesus really is God's king. It's a bit like me walking into a party and saying, okay guys, now the fun can really start (which would never happen as I'm not that fun ...).

So ... immediately we know that at the heart of God's "gospel" = "momentous news" is Jesus.
So what about this eternal life business? Interesting in Mark's gospel I think that eternal life doesn't come up that much until Mark 8 (please correct me if I'm wrong!!) You find out in Mark 5 that Jesus has the power to raise people from the dead (young girl dies, it's as easy for Jesus to wake her as from sleep).

Jesus also does a lot of miracles in 1-8 and gives some crazy chat (check it out!), but eternal life doesn't come up in a big way again until Mark 8.

Then in Mark 8, when the thicker-than-two-Redwood-planks disciples finally have God open their eyes to understand that Jesus is God's promised king, all of a sudden Jesus starts saying that he has come to die and then rise again. Not only that, but that if you want to follow him, you have to die too, to quote:

"“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life[d] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

So Jesus very clearly makes an individual's response to him key to their eternal destiny. He makes it a binary choice. Either we follow him and take up our cross - i.e be willing to put our whole lives at his disposal, after all, the only people "taking up their crosses" in Jesus' day were the guys walking to the execution site carrying their own electric chair equivalents. Or, we cling to our own lives now, don't trust him, but then when he returns to judge he will be "ashamed" of us. That doesn't sound good, especially as it's in the category of those who "forfeit their soul".

This sounds like a tough call eh? And it is. The disciples over the next three chapters routinely fail to live up to this most fundamental commandment. They don't seem to pray in Jesus' name to cast out a demon, they are not humbly following Jesus to death, they're still clinging to glory and arguing about who the greatest disciple is (ch.9 and ch.10)!!! On top of that, through chapters 9-10 the requirements of being a disciple get are further elaborated and only seem harder. You need to be rock solid on no-divorce, have the humility of a child, and fascinating of all you have the rich young man.

The rich young man comes with your very question "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asks him if he's obeyed the commandments (interestingly leaving out the one about coveting), which amazingly the guy is able to claim that he has fulfilled these commandments! So Jesus asks for one more thing, to sell his possessions, give to the poor and follow Jesus. He goes away sad as he has many possessions. The disciples then ask the right question "Who then can be saved??" If even this guy who was so righteous, always honoured his parents, had never stolen etc. if even he can't get in then what hope is there for the rest of us? Jesus response: "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God."

All of this leads you at the end of 10 to be sure that the disciples, and by extension, any of us, are not worthy of this kingdom, when bam then comes the explanation.

Jesus explains in 10:45 "For the Son of Man [that's Jesus' term for himself] did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many." (my bolding added). Jesus' death will be the ransom. i.e it will buy back these disciples, who cannot earn their own
forgiveness from God.

The rest of the book then has Jesus' pitted against the religious rulers of his day, their plot to kill him, his willingness to die for his people and let them execute him (e.g doesn't run away, doesn't fight it at the trial (despite his innocence)).

Conclusion The whole book climaxes in Jesus death - why? Because this is the main thing that Jesus came to do. He came to ransom all who turn to him.

So what must we do to have eternal life? It's impossible with man, but if you turn to Christ, follow him, trusting in his ransom-death then you can be assured that you have eternal life. If you can trust one guy, you can trust Jesus. Mark heaps up a load more reasons to trust him that I haven't had time for, all his miracles, his great teaching, how he handles those who hate him, his courage, his steadfast love for his people. I highly recommend that you have a go at reading Mark's gospel if you at all can, it's shorter than a Sunday paper!
I was going to try and do John, but I'm over and out for now! Good night.

[jimwalton]

"Hollands" gave you good stuff on the gospel of Mark. I'll take a stab at the gospel of John, which he/she hasn't returned to.

John starts off with the deity of Jesus (1.1-3), that he's just as much God as the Big Man upstairs. He came to bring light and life to the world (1.4), so that people could become children of God if they recognized him as God and received him as such (1.12). The way to heaven is to recognize the deity of Jesus, receive him, and participate in his light and life.

What keeps us out of heaven is sin (1.29), and Jesus has come to remedy that problem. We'll find out as the book progresses how he plans to do that.

Jesus calls people to follow him, an idiom meaning to become his disciple and learn to be like him. That's how one gets to heaven: recognize who Jesus is, believe him, receive him, participate in his light and life by following his teaching and becoming like him.

But that doesn't come about by effort, but by a miracle done by God himself. Jesus calls it being "born again" in Jn. 3.3. It's an act of God, not an act of humans (3.6). What will precipitate the possibility of such light and life is Jesus' death (3.14-16). John 3.16-21 are some of the most powerful words in the Bible, and you should read them several times to get the gist.

In Jn 4 he speaks with a woman, encouraging her to "drink" from his life (4.13-14). Just as Jesus will die and rise from the dead (3.13; 5.21), humans need to die to themselves and be raised to new life ("born again") by the power of Son evidenced by his coming resurrection (5.21). The one who has eternal life is the one who honors Jesus (5.23), hears (implying obeys) his teachings (5.24), and believes what Jesus says and who he is—his claims to deity (5.24).

The one who wants to go to heaven has to participate in the life and death of Jesus. Jesus says this metaphorically in Jn. 6 when he says you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood (6.48-51). Ew. The people thought the same thing (ew—v. 52), but Jesus stuck to his word picture (6.53-58; 7.37-38) because it said the right things: Jesus becomes part of you, and you part of him. It's not a matter of being religious or being good, but participating in his life. It's much more like a relationship than a religion, frankly (10.1-18). It's not us earning our way to God by being good, but God (who is Jesus, who is God, 10.30) seeking and finding us, a creating a path for us to participate in his light and life (8.12).

Jesus proved his power and deity claims by raising Laz from the dead in chapter 11, guaranteeing by a public act that he was who he claimed to be (God) and had the power to do what he claimed to be able to do—give life where there is only death (11.25). After Jesus' own death and resurrection, John wanted to make sure that everybody gets the point in Jn. 20.30-31: so that you may recognize who Jesus is (God), and form a relationship with him by belief and receiving, to share in his life, which is not only heaven but God's presence.

[Plumpo]

Thanks. I always thought that John 3:16 was Jesus actually speaking, but the NIV seems to end the quote at verse 15. I wonder why the translations are not clear on that.

Jesus' words about salvation in John seem to be fairly vague and metaphoric: be born again, believe in me, living water, hear my word, believe in my father, etc. Not much that is very specific.

Lots of miracles though. It really seems different from the other three gospels. I'll read through it in more detail though... thanks for the post!

[jimwalton]

> John 3.16

Most of the time in the gospels it's clear what words belong to Jesus and which ones don't. In the case of John 3.16-21, we don't know. One could easily take them either way. But it's not that it necessarily matters. They are among the most profound words ever written. It hardly matters whether Jesus or John said them.

> Jesus' words about salvation in John seem to be fairly vague and metaphoric

We make the best sense out of it all by putting them all together. (Jesus did speak cryptically sometimes.) Salvation is matter of having a new nature (born again; also see 2 Cor. 5.17). Paul later talks about that we are born with a sin nature (Romans 7.18, 25), but that we need to be remade or reborn with the nature of Jesus (Rom. 8.29). So salvation is not about being good, or being religious. Those may be good things, but they don't pay for a ticket to heaven. Salvation is a free gift (Rom. 6.23) offered to those who repent from their sins, confess them to God, desire to commit themselves in a love relationship with God (sort of like what we do when we marry somebody), and live to love God, living in a way that pleases Him. So it's all the words of Jesus put in a sequence: understand who Jesus is, acknowledge that, believe in him, and live in a love relationship with God, letting Him change who you are so that you live a godly life. As we read the whole NT, we get more and more of the picture from the rest of the things Jesus said, and from how Paul and the other writers enhanced that understanding.

> It really seems different from the other three gospels.

John is VERY different from the other gospels. The other three have similarities such that they are grouped together and called "The Synoptic Gospels." John's is so different it stands apart. But all of the gospel writers have a different theme, and a reason for why they put it together the way that they did. John just has a different agenda than the others: To show that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that people will believe in him and find life through His name (Jn. 20.31).

> Lots of miracles though

The miracles in John are specifically called *signs*. John wants us to see not just the "Gee-whiz that was cool!" aspect of the miracles, but to understand their significance. They weren't at all a show, but symbols of spiritual realities. Every time Jesus does a miracle there is a teaching aspect to it and a spiritual reality aspect to it. We always look for those when we read, because they are signs, not just miraculous acts.