A Better Place? How Do You Know?

We live in a day where people really do not care about knowing God. They have a slight awareness that there might be a God and have some opinion of what they think about God. But to say that they truly know God, most really don’t care. There are too many other things in life that are too important at this time to worry about whether or not you know God.

But we also live in a day, where most people believe that when they die they will go to a better place. They really do not know much about “this better place.” But they believe it is a better place. I hear this all the time as a pastor when I attend funerals and I hear the people say, “they are in a better place.” I always wonder, “How do they know that?” On what basis are they making that claim? Since most people have no desire to know God and no desire to learn, how can they make such confident statements as “they are in a better place”?

For those who are interested, the Bible has much to say about eternal life and also the importance of knowing God. Jesus says, “Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.” What does that mean? The next verse is the most famous from the Bible, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus was very clear that the only way to have life eternal was to believe in Him.

Eternal life means what? It is a reference to when we die; we will go to be with God. But Jesus means much more than having a safe passage to heaven. In his final night before His death and resurrection, Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life knows God in a real and intimate way. Eternal life means you know and understand that Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life. It means you have a good understanding of the Biblical truths that have been given to us about the Father and the Son.

To live your life in a way that says, “I really do not care whether or not I know God” is to reject life eternal in Jesus Christ. But that also removes any possibility of someone saying at your death, “He is in a better place.” For other than wishful thinking, they have no basis of making that claim. For a better place in eternity, you have to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent!

Steven Branson