secondchance We started on Monday by looking at money as a physical substance that you can’t take with you to the spiritual afterlife. Tuesday we noticed how love, on the other hand, is something you can take with you, provided Heaven is where you’re going. Stubbornness, however, is something you won’t be taking to Hell, if hell is where you’re going. And if Hell is, sadly, your eternal destination, then a grudge is something that you can take with you forever and ever.

There’s one last topic to consider and it is something you can’t take with you, whether you go to Heaven or Hell. And wherever you end up, you will look back on it either happily or longingly. What is it?

A second chance.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

Luke 16:27-29

If Heaven is where will make your home for all eternity, then in Heaven you will look back on your time on earth and be thankful you were given “a second chance.”

 

Though you sinned against God and deserved to die for your crimes, the Lord offered His Son Jesus to die instead of you. His death gave you the opportunity to have a second opportunity at life. If you’re going to be in Heaven it’s because you took that opportunity and made the most of it. You obeyed the Gospel and lived a life faithful to the Lord.

You’re thankful for the second chance you were given, though in Heaven it’s no longer something you need. There is no temptation and sin in Heaven, thus there is no danger of falling away and therefore there’ll be no need for another second chance. You’ll have made it; you’ll be home.

On the other hand, if Hell is the place where you will reside for ever, then in Hell you will look back on your time on earth and long for another “second chance.”

Though you sinned against God and deserved to die for your crimes, the Lord offered His Son Jesus to die instead of you. His death gave you the opportunity to have a second opportunity at life. If you’re going to be in Hell, however, it’s because you declined that opportunity. You squandered it and made it so that Jesus died (for you) for nothing.

You rejected the Gospel of Christ and chose to enjoy the pleasures of sin for as long as you could. You will beg for a second chance but you’ll remember that you already had one and wasted it.

If you’re reading this you’re not dead…yet. You have the opportunity to live for God. Make the most of the second chance He offers you now.

Because you can’t take it with you when you go.