How late is too late?

How late in this life can a person commit their life to Christ and then be able to go to heaven? When they are unconscious or in a coma or just before their spirit leaves their body?

The short answer is, as we see in Luke 23:39-43, that a person can receive salvation at any time before their earthly death, up to and including the day they die. But nowhere in the Bible do we see a person in an unconscious state receive salvation, because the decision to turn from one’s sins, and trust that Jesus’ death as payment for one’s sins, can only come from a conscious mind. Why? Because the decision to believe In Jesus for salvation, turning from our sinful ways, and asking God to forgive us, is by definition, a decision of the will. A person in a coma or an unconscious state obviously would have no capacity to assert their will.

We must remember that in all things, God sees the motives of our hearts. When one asks a question such as the above, the likely motive may be so that the person asking can live their way, instead of God’s way, for as long as possible, but then commit to Him just in time, to avoid the punishment of hell. Since God sees our inner being (see Hebrews 4:13), and knows the motives of our hearts, there is no fooling God. If our motive is to live for ourselves, and our life’s choices bear that out, God will likely give us what we really want, which is to be apart from Him. Remember- God is a Gentleman. He will not club us over the head, and drag us back to His cave, and say, “You- love me!” If what we really want is to live our own way, we are proving ourselves to be a liar, not following Him, not caring for His ways. The place reserved for those who want to live their own way, instead of God’s, is hell, not heaven.

Submitted by: Pete Ohlinger