God has a destiny for our life that He wants us to carry out, but each of us will determine the details of how we’ll do it. What we’ve decided to believe, along with the way we behave now, will ultimately decide our destiny for all of eternity.
There isn’t any other human being who could be our Savior, because no one has had a future like He had.
Our Final Destiny is Dependent on Our Relationship to Christ
The agony Christ endured in the Garden of Gethsemane was His agony as the Son of God completing His own destiny as the world’s Savior. God pulled aside the veil to show us the price He had to pay so we’d be able to become God’s sons. There isn’t any other human being who could be our Savior, because no one has had a future like He had. Our own final human destiny is therefore entirely dependent on what our relationship to Christ is.
There’s a definite purpose and reason why God saves and redeems people for a specific destiny. He has a plan for everyone who believes and has faith in what His Son did for them when He died on the Cross. His disposition determined His destiny, and ours is also determined by our own disposition. It isn’t important what people believe in their head. What is essential and what makes someone a true child of God depends on what that person’s disposition really is.
If you’ve become a believer in God, your ultimate destiny is to be in fellowship with Him as Jesus was.
There is No Opportunity to Change in Hell
Truths about God’s nature and purpose, along with the final destiny of man (Heaven or Hell) have already been disclosed by God. We can change our mind and destiny while we’re still here on Earth. But we’ll have no second chance to change either one in Hell. This is what makes the biggest difference between ending up in Heaven or ending up in Hell. If you’ve become a believer in God, your ultimate destiny is to be in fellowship with Him as Jesus was. But those who set themselves against true believers who are doing the work of God will be Hell.
When a person dies in unbelief, their eternal destiny is in the Lake of Fire, separated from God for all eternity. “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Christ was separated from God to pay for our sins, so we’d never have to be separated from God—if we’ll only believe. “…for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). If you die without trusting Christ as your Savior, your destiny will be Hell. It will then be too late to change the destination you have chosen.
Your Future is Set if You Do Not Believe in Christ
All your sins were paid for on the Cross of Calvary, where Christ died for the sin of the world. If you die without truly believing that Christ did this for you, that is, without accepting the forgiveness He has already provided for you, then you end up in Hell. “He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God“ (John 3:18).
The forgiveness was offered; but you refused it. When you die, your destiny is then sealed forever. That is why the Lord said, “…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31) without Christ as your Savior.
Jesus fulfilled His destiny, but the destiny God wants for us can’t be fulfilled unless we’re absorbed into His.
Just Believing in Christ Doesn’t Guarantee Our Destiny
Yet after we’ve accepted Christ into our life, our destiny isn’t automatically made for us. Each of us still makes our own. Therefore, it’s up to us to work out what the Lord has worked into us. This isn’t because our salvation depends on doing this, but rather what we’re worth to God—along with what our future role in His Kingdom will be. Jesus fulfilled His destiny, but the destiny God wants for us can’t be fulfilled unless we’re absorbed into His. Man was originally created to fulfill this destiny. This means that the way we treat Christ and Him alone will determine what our own eternal destiny will be.
Therefore, Christ’s first concern is the destiny of our soul in the midst of the storm of life. Will we win our soul in the end or won’t we? It isn’t so much a question of how long the storm will go on, or if it’s likely to become worse.
We need to know if we’ll be successful in riding out the storm of our circumstances. The answer is important because it rests on whether we conquer the storm, or if it conquers us. Will our soul be drowned, or brought out of the storm alive and whole? The world’s stormy struggle and tumult is one of the primary interests of the entire Bible, because the Lord is continually watching over the moral destiny of man.
Where you spend your eternal destiny is your choice.
God destroyed millions during the flood—the multitude who didn’t believe in Him. You, too, can choose to follow the present unbelieving multitude into Hell, or the minority into eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Where you spend your eternal destiny is your choice. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
[Additional image credits: Featured image (when available) by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash; Opening photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash]
