This past summer, my wife and I said good-bye to a dear friend of ours. Cancer was winning a yearslong battle, and her days on earth were coming to an end.

Then again, when death separates Christians from one another, it is not good-bye, is it? Our friend certainly understood that.

As my wife and I were exiting the room, I turned to our friend, who then said, “I’ll see you there.” Everyone in the room knew where there was. It was heaven.

What a remarkable statement of faith. It is precisely the kind of confession of faith Christians can make because of the Holy Spirit’s working in their hearts through the gospel.

Recall how the apostle Paul made a confession of faith like that. In what is considered his last inspired writing—2 Timothy—the apostle confessed this: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day” (1:12). There was no uncertainty in Paul’s words. He was convinced that his soul was in good hands—God’s hands—for time and eternity.

Paul continued, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (4:7-8). Paul knew the Lord would graciously award him a crown. This was another confident expression of Christian faith.

There is every reason for that confidence because salvation is God’s work not ours. If salvation were up to you and me, our confidence level would be zero. Because salvation is God’s work, there is every reason for the number to be 100 percent.

And yet memories of past sins can linger. Doubts can creep in. Will I really be in heaven?

God wants you to be 100 percent confident that you are his child through faith in Jesus, his Son. He wants you to be 100 percent confident that you will be with him when your life on earth comes to an end.

The gospel has the purpose—and the power—to instill that confidence in you. Every journey in God’s Word points you to your heavenly destination. Every trip to the Communion rail directs your thoughts heavenward.

That means we can be filled with confidence—from God—when we think of our lives on earth coming to an end.

Oh, before you go, I should really pass along the entirety of 2 Timothy 4:7-8. Yes, the apostle Paul was convinced that the Lord would award him the crown of righteousness on the Last Day, but he did not see himself alone in that coronation scene. He wrote, “Not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

That is why my friend could say to my wife and me, “I’ll see you there.” And, by God’s grace, she will.

James Pope | FIC Editor

Author: James Pope
Volume 113, Number 10
Issue: October 2026
Photo: iStock