The things we will take into heaven have to do with the values of the human spirit. The apostle Paul wrote, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13). The love we have for each other and for God will survive the grave. The hope we have in God will survive the grave. The faith we have in God will survive the grave. These three inner qualities of the spirit of man will go into heaven.

On the other hand, people will take spiritual characteristics to hell with them too–things like pride, rebellion, envy, pettiness, and self-seeking. Hell goes on forever, so what starts out at forty or fifty years of age as a manageable tendency could be increased and magnified at the age of one million to an absolutely hideous characteristic. Imagine what pride, selfishness, cruelty, envy, or anger would be like if they were allowed to multiply for one million years!

This is why heaven must be reserved for those whose spiritual tendencies have been reborn and why rebellious sinners cannot be allowed to enter the place that God has prepared for those who serve Him.

Why, for instance, would any woman want to spend her life in the worst slums of India? Why would she want to devote herself to working among the poor, to giving them a home, and to making their lives easier to bear? Mother Teresa done all these things because she wanted to follow Jesus Christ. She had His love in her heart, and that made her want to reach out in love to the less fortunate.

There are hundreds and thousands of other examples, although Mother Teresa was probably the best known. When people allow Jesus to govern their actions, they stop fighting and start showing love for one another. That is the hope of the world.

Granted, there are people who are not Christian believers who strive for peace, and there are Christian believers still filled with selfishness and hate. But in the final analysis, outside of the love of Christ, there is no hope for true peace. Until those who make the world’s decisions are followers of the Prince of Peace–and until Jesus Christ Himself returns to earth–there will never be true love among men. There will be rivalries, racial hatred, and difficulties of all kinds–and men will not love their fellow men as God would have them to do.

Remember, though, that Jesus Christ is coming back to reign on this earth. When He does come, assuming His rightful role as our king, men of every nation, race, and culture will be able to live side by side in perfect harmony. Not because they have been forced to do so, but because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their king and He has changed their hearts.

In Isaiah 11:6-9, we catch a glimpse of what the world will be like after Jesus returns: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” In that day there not only will be lasting love and fellowship among the people of the earth but also, according to the prophet, among the animals as well!

The problem we are facing today is that most people are directed instead by external stimuli that come to us through the bodily senses. So the body begins to be the controlling factor through gluttony, sex, pride, or whatever. Because the body controls the soul, the soul is able to conceive of schemes to make the body happy. And the end result is that the spirit of man is submerged by selfishness.

The spirit of the first man was like a mirror, reflecting the glory of God. He had the imago dei, “the image of God,” clearly within him. Because God was personally revealed to him, God’s way was uppermost. But when man sinned, his inner mirror was clouded or darkened. He could no longer see God clearly. As a result, instead of being directed by God’s Spirit, people are manipulated by their bodies or their minds toward evil. In Genesis we read, “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21).

When man was created, he had the capacity to serve God, and doing that came naturally because he was in the presence of God. As long as man’s spirit functions as it should, serving God is natural, so man tends toward good. But once he is removed from God, self-preservation becomes more important; and man will kill, lie, cheat, and hurt others in order to preserve his self-esteem, his self-image, and his life. Humans have a tremendous capacity for good or evil because they are made in the image of God. Man can do more good, but also more damage, than any animal because man has a godlike capacity.

Theologians have a saying that Adam in the Garden of Eden was posse non peccare (able not to sin), and if he had continued in that, he would have come to the point where he was non posse peccare (not able to sin). He would have become so established in righteousness that he would not have been able to sin. From then on he would have been transformed to ever higher righteousness. But instead, he fell, and as a result became evil. That is why Jesus said that every man or woman had to be born from above, or “born again,” in order to see God’s kingdom (see John 3:3).

Man’s spirit has to be restored by being cleansed from sin by Jesus Christ, then created anew by operation of God’s Spirit. With his own spirit under the control of God’s Spirit, the remainder of man’s being–soul and body–would be controlled from within instead of from without.

Here is the step-by-step-process. First, you must consider your life and then turn away from everything in it that is contrary to what God wants. This turning away from selfishness and toward God is called repentance (see Matthew 3:7-10, Acts 3:19).

Second, you must acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross to forgive you of sin. You take Him as your Saviour to cleanse you from sin–as the substitute who paid the price due you for your sin (see Romans 5:9-10, Titus 2:14).

And third, you must ask Him to be Lord of your life, acknowledging openly and verbally that Jesus is not only your Saviour but your Lord.

The Bible says that as many as received Him were given the power to become the sons of God (see John 1:12). So when you open your heart and receive Him, He comes into your heart, your inner person, through His Holy Spirit, and begins to live His life in you. From that point it is a question of confessing what God has done. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).