April 27, 2024

Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, April 27, 2024, and this is episode #11 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “What Will Happen to You after You Die?”

There’s an old saying that goes like this: Only two things in life are certain–Death and Taxes.

With apologies to the late, great Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that all men will one day die. Despite current endeavors in trans-humanism—which is the merging of man and machine—man in his physical state is not immortal. One day his body will die. Plain and simple.

While people may grapple with the fear of death, they usually don’t think about what happens after death. In this week’s podcast, I would like to explore this very topic of what happens after physical death and why we should be concerned.

Let’s first take a look at what a human being really is. You, my friend, are an amazing creation of God. Contrary to what the evolutionists may tell you, you did not evolve from lower forms of life. You were created directly by God Himself, fashioned by His heart and His hands for His purpose. You are not here by accident. God intended for you to be here at this moment in time and at your particular place in time. Whether your parents wanted you or not, God wanted you. Psalm 27: 10 says this: “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.”

Now, when God made you, He made you in His image. This means that you are a reflection of Him. How? Well, God is a three-part Being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since you are made in God’s image, you, too, are a three-part being: spirit, soul, and body.

Your spirit is who you are at the core. The real you. Your soul comprises your intellect or mind, your emotions, and your will. All of this is housed in your body, which I call your “earth suit.”

When God first created man, man’s spirit was connected to God. When man’s spirit was connected to God, man enjoyed an abundant life of peace, joy, and love in a place called the Garden of Eden.

But when man disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, man’s spirit was severed from God. Man had already known good. But now, after his sin, he began to know evil as well.

And, sad to say , man has known evil ever since.

Man’s sin put him in a major dilemma. His spirit was now separated from God, and there was no way for man to connect himself back to God. Because of his sin, man was now corrupted and imperfect. God, of course, was pure and perfect. As an imperfect being, man could not reconnect himself to a perfect Being.

So what could man do?

Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Man could never reconnect himself back to God. Yet, without that reconnection, man was totally helpless, lost, and damned to an eternity of punishment in hell. For his sin had to be paid for, and man could not pay for it.

Yet, something amazing happened. Something completely unexpected. God the Father loved man so much in spite of man’s sin that God sent His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ to reconnect man back to Himself. That is what the Cross is all about, my friend. Jesus, the perfect God, gave His life as the punishment for your sin and mine. In other words, Jesus took the rap for our sin.

It would be like someone going to the electric chair for you today. Who would do that? No one I know. But Jesus Christ did it for you and for me.

You see, sin always has punishment attached to it. Sin is a violation of God’s holiness, and God not only will not tolerate sin, but he also cannot tolerate it. He is holy, and sin cannot stand in His Presence.

Well, since Adam was now corrupted by sin, he was in no position to pay the price for sin. Someone had to do it for him. And that Someone was Jesus Christ.

This is the reason Jesus came to earth as a human being. He took on the nature of man in order to be our substitute in taking the punishment for our sin. The One Who was fully God became fully man. And while on earth, He remained fully God and fully man.

Why?

Because as a human being, Jesus could represent man and take man’s punishment for sin. As God, He could perfectly pay the price for sin that was due to the perfect God. Jesus Christ alone qualified to pay the punishment for man’s sin. No matter what our culture may tell you, there is absolutely no other way to be saved. Jesus Himself said in John 14: 6, ““I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Buddha was not perfect. Mohammed was not perfect. Hare Krishna was not perfect. Nor were any other of the false saviors people have followed over the centuries. Only Jesus Christ was perfect.

Buddha, Mohammed, Hare Krishna and all other false saviors eventually died and remained dead. Only Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is still alive forevermore!

In dying for our sin, Jesus satisfied the wrath of the holy God. You see, because God is perfectly just, He has to punish sin. He cannot overlook it. Otherwise, He would not be perfectly just.

So, someone has to pay God for sin. Man could never pay God for his sin. So Jesus, in His great love and mercy, paid the price for man. Because Jesus was both God and man, God the Father accepted Christ’s death and resurrection as full payment for man’s sin.

The Good News is that now, Jesus offers to you and me the freedom from the punishment for sin that He earned for us. He offers this freedom as a gift, with no strings attached. We cannot earn Christ’s gift of salvation. We simply have to accept the gift. Only Jesus could pay the infinite price for sin owed to the infinite God. And Jesus did. Why? Because of His infinite love for us.

But unless we receive the gift of salvation, it does us no good. If I were to give you a birthday gift, you would have to accept it from me in order for it to be in your possession. If you refuse to receive the birthday gift from me when I offer it to you, you would, in essence, be rejecting the gift.

It is the same with the gift of salvation. We can either accept it or reject it. But there are consequences to each decision. If you accept the gift of salvation—also known as the gift of eternal life—you will go to Heaven when you die and live in joy with Christ forever. You will be acknowledging that Jesus Christ paid the price for your sin. In so doing, God the Father will consider your punishment for sin paid for. He will consider your debt of punishment cancelled.

But if you reject the gift of salvation, you will go to Hell when you die and live with Satan forever in utter, unending torment. You will be refusing Christ’s payment of your sin debt. As a result, you will still be required to pay the debt of punishment for your sin.

But, as we have seen, you cannot pay the debt yourself. So if you reject Christ’s payment of your sin debt, you will be condemned and damned for all eternity.

The choice is yours.

So, what choice are you going to make? Will you accept Christ’s gift of eternal life, or will you reject it?

Know this: Jesus came to earth the first time as a baby. He will come back the second time as a Judge. If you have not accepted His gift of salvation, He will judge you as guilty of sin. But if you accept His gift of salvation, He will judge you as innocent and acquitted of sin.

So, my friend, what is your decision? If you have decided to accept Christ’s gift of salvation, pray this prayer with me now:

Lord Jesus, I come to You, acknowledging my guilt. I deserve eternal punishment, but because of Your love for me, I can escape eternal death since You graciously paid the price for my sin. So, Lord, I repent of my sin, and I turn to You for Your mercy and grace. I receive Your gift of salvation. I receive You as my Savior and Lord. Reconnect me to God the Father. I pray in Your Name. Amen.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, you are now a born-again child of God. Welcome to the family of God! Write down today’s date. It is your spiritual birthday and the day on which you received the birthday gift of salvation that Jesus died to give you. Then write to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com. I would like to send you a free PDF booklet titled After You’re Born Again to help you grow in your walk with Christ.

Also, please check out my featured books below. Miracle in Milan in ebook format is on sale this week for only $2.99. And my award-winning novel, In Black and White, is featured in a Goodreads Giveaway until May 9th.So take advantage of these two opportunities at the links below.

Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are and that He will help you to keep on winning with the Word!

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Miracle in Milan by MaryAnn Diorio
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In Black and White by MaryAnn Diorio
First-Place Winner in Historical Fiction in the 2020 Christian Indie Book Awards Contest

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Copyright 2024 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio is an award-winning novelist, certified life and health coach, and a licensed minister. She writes award-winning fiction from a small town in New Jersey where neighbors still stop to chat while walking their dogs, families and friends still gather on wide, wrap-around porches, and the charming downtown still finds kids licking lollipops and old married folks holding hands. A Jersey girl at heart, MaryAnn loves Jersey diners, Jersey tomatoes, and the Jersey shore. You may learn more about her at her two websites:
maryanndiorio.com
https://www.celebrationlifeandhealthcoaching.com