As we face death we should find comfort in the declaration that God, by His grace, forgives and delivers us from all that would bar us from the joys of heaven. He not only undoes the consequences of the evil that has marked our lives, but God also forgets that we ever sinned in the first place (Isaiah 43:25). Because of God's work in our lives, on that great day when we are presented to the Father, we will be introduced as faultless. The Book of Jude affirms this truth: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). I can just imagine Jesus saying, "Father! I want you to meet my friend Tony … the perfect one!" And that is just what God will do for everyone who trusts in God on the other side of the great divide.
In light of all this good news about how those who understand and live out the gospel can face the last enemy, we can more fully understand why Jesus said what He did, in what many consider to be the most comforting passage of Scripture in the face of death:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." (John 14:1-4)
-- Tony Campolo in “Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God”
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