Consider This …

Consider This …
by Dennis Costella and
Matt Costella

Fundamental Evangelistic Association

2251 E. Beechwood Ave.
Fresno, CA 93720 USA
www.feasite.org
FEA Press
2251 E. Beechwood Avenue
Fresno, CA 93720
www.feasite.org

© 2014 Fundamental Evangelistic Association

All Scripture quotations are taken from the

King James Version of the Bible.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form,
except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or article, without
written permission from the author or publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

 Have You Considered This?
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

We all spend a great amount of time, effort, and money to care

for our earthly needs. However, few seem concerned about their
eternal well-being. Are we too busy to consider what happens
when this life is over? Long ago Jesus Christ asked, “For what shall
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark
8:36-37). Do you have the answers to these vital questions? Do you
know where you will spend eternity?

Life is full of questions, but this is one of the most important ques-
tions any person will ever consider. Whether or not you realize
it, everybody is trusting in something; everybody is placing his
or her faith in something or someone. You may be trusting your
own ideas and opinions or your own feelings; you may be trust-
ing the word of another person; you may be trusting in a church
or religion. Regardless of your own ideas or opinions concerning

3
God, the hereafter, or “spirituality,” you are basing your beliefs on
something or someone. The purpose of this booklet is simply to
share with you what God’s Word, the Bible, says concerning how to
gain a relationship with God now and eternal life in the hereafter.

Please take a few moments right now to seriously consider what

God wants you to know about life now and hereafter. It will be
time well spent—perhaps the most crucial few minutes you will
ever spend in your entire life. The written Word of God, the Bible,
emphatically states what we must understand and what we must
believe if we are to be brought into a right relationship with our
Creator and experience eternal life the moment we take our final
breath on this earth. It really does not matter what our opinions
might be, but it makes all the difference in the world what God has
said must be.

We Face A Serious Problem

The Bible reveals our natural standing before God. We are “by na-
ture the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) and “dead in trespasses

4
and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). We have proven time and again that we
are sinners by birth and practice—no exceptions! “As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). “For all have
sinned, and come short of
the glory of God” (Romans
3:23). We all fall short of
the divine standard of
absolute holiness. We
stand before the righteous
Judge—God Himself—
guilty as charged.

Consider the consequenc-

es if, at this very moment,
you were to die in this
condition. The Bible re-
moves all uncertainty con-
cerning what lies beyond
the grave: “It is appointed
unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment”
(Hebrews 9:27).

The Bible also reveals the

outcome of this judgment. Until the sin problem is settled, a guilty
sinner cannot possibly enter the glories of heaven. Revelation
21:27 states: “And there shall in no wise enter into it (heaven) any
thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or ma-
keth a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” No
one can enter heaven in the presence of God unless the defilement
of sin has been erased and his name is written in the “Lamb’s book
of life.” Heaven is the dwelling place of God, and no one who is yet
in sin can be allowed to enter into the Lord’s holy presence.

The next important question that must be asked is: “If one who
dies in his sin cannot possibly enter heaven, then where will

5
he spend eternity?” Revelation 20:15 provides the answer: “And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire.” Hell is a place of everlasting and literal torment. This
eternal existence in the lake of fire is “the second death” and is the
just penalty for sin—“the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). All
who die in their sins face the reality of eternal suffering—the bitter
end of sin.

What We Cannot Do
Since God’s Word plainly declares that we are all sinners and,
therefore, justly barred from heaven and bound instead for hell,
the following question is of preeminent importance: “What are
we going to do about our sin?”

People give many different answers in response to this incredibly

vital question. Many feel their sin can be erased by living a good
life or by “turning over a new leaf” and trying to do better. Oth-
ers consider themselves to be “just as good as the next person”
and believe their good works will outweigh their bad deeds in the

6
end. Still others sincerely believe that by joining a church or going
through religious ceremonies (baptism, confirmation, confession,
partaking of the Lord’s Supper, etc.), the burden of sin’s guilt and
its awful penalty can be relieved.

The Word of God is very definite concerning the error of such

reasoning and the futility of any self-effort to remedy our sinful
condition. It is “not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

Actually, we have no
righteousness of our
own, nor could we do
any good work that
would help in the slight-
est way to accomplish
our salvation. The Bible
says, “But we are all as
an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses [our
good works] are as filthy
rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

We can make our lives

appear more respect-
able to others by hon-
est effort, holy resolve,
and religious or spiritual
activity, but inwardly the
heart is still unchanged.
We may conceal our sin
before others, but we
cannot wash it away. Good
works, religious ceremonies, and pious intentions—any effort of our
own—can never cancel our sin or make us acceptable to an all-holy
and righteous God.

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 What God Has Done
What, then, must we do to be saved? Since the Bible plainly
teaches that we can do nothing to save ourselves from sin and its
penalty, how can we be made acceptable before God? Once again,
the answer is found in God’s Holy Word. What a wonderful answer
we find: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). Think of that! When we were
without strength, completely unable to do anything to attain our
own salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ—God the Son—died in our
place.

God knew we were utterly helpless as hell-bound sinners, and in

accordance with His grace (undeserved and unmerited favor), He
intervened in our behalf. He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, into this world to shed His precious blood as the full pay-
ment for sin. In so doing, Jesus Christ died the death the sinner
rightfully deserves.

Why did He do this? Why would Jesus die for us? Romans 5:8 has

8
the answer: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” As Jesus Christ hung
on Calvary’s cross, He was not dying for His own sins, for He was
the perfect, sinless Lamb of God. Jesus Christ died in our place and
bore sin’s penalty that we deserved.

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised

for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon
Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah
53:5-6).

“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree”
(1 Peter 2:24).

“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again
for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

The penalty for sin had to be paid, and God the Father placed our
sin upon the bruised and bleeding body of His beloved Son. The
full weight and penalty for sin—our sin—fell upon the crucified
Lord of Glory. He was our sin-bearer, our substitute. God loved us

9
while we were yet sinners and sent His beloved Son to die in our
place. What amazing love!

When Jesus Christ

cried out from the
cross, “It is finished”
(John 19:30), He had
indeed finished, or
completed, through
His death, an all-
sufficient offering
for sin—a perfect
salvation. We cannot
add to it nor do any
good work to de-
serve what God has provided full and free through Christ’s death,
burial, and resurrection. God has done it all! We must simply be-
lieve it and receive this gift by faith.

A Marvelous Solution

The Bible is very clear concerning what you must now do in order
to receive the gift of salvation that God has provided by His grace.
You must personally accept it, or His gift will profit you absolutely
nothing. Only the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was
shed on Calvary’s cross has the power to cleanse us from sin, and
it is through faith in the Person and work of Jesus Christ that the
cleansing power of the blood is applied.

Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. It is His sacrificial death
on the cross that provides salvation for any lost sinner who will
trust in Him as the only Savior from sin and its penalty, and as the
only way to heaven. When we genuinely believe that Jesus died,
was buried, and rose again bodily from the tomb, and that all this
was done to provide a perfect salvation for sinful man, then we

10
receive full forgiveness of sins and the gift of everlasting life.

“To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name who-
soever believeth in Him shall receive remission [forgiveness] of sins”
(Acts 10:43). This is how the sin problem is resolved. When one
believes in Jesus Christ—who He is and what He has done for us
on our behalf—his sin is forgiven, and, as a cleansed sinner, he is
made acceptable before God. He is no longer guilty—he has been
justified!

Note the following promises from God’s Word that describe the
present and future standing of the one who trusts Christ as Savior:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and

believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death
unto life” (John 5:24).

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power [au-

thority] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name” (John 1:12).

11
 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Romans 5:1-2).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of

yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man
should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”

(Acts 16:31).

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world
to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might
be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned…”
(John 3:16-18).

“To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans
4:5).

12
 An Immediate Opportunity
Yes, my friend, the moment you genuinely believe (and believing
is nothing more nor less than taking God at His Word), you receive
forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life! In so doing, you
stand before God complete and perfect in Christ’s righteousness
rather than condemned in your own self-righteousness, which is
but “filthy rags” in His sight. When you receive by faith the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are “made the righteousness of God
in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “To declare … His righteousness: that
He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”
(Romans 3:26).

Do not be deceived by the widespread belief that no one can be

absolutely certain as to whether or not he or she has truly been
“saved” or “born-again.” God says we can know, and this is be-
cause God’s salvation is based upon the sure promises of His Word
and upon the finished work of Christ on the cross.

First John 5:11-13 tells the believer that he can know for certain
that he has passed from death unto life and that his sins have been
forever forgiven: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us

13
eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life;
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on
the name of the Son of God.”

Consider several other texts from God’s Word:

“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost

that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never per-
ish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John
10:28).

In fact, Scripture tells us that once we are saved, we are “sealed”

by the Holy Spirit. God says, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians
4:30). The Holy
Spirit gives us
certainty of our
eternal relation-
ship with God!

Would you like

to receive Jesus
Christ as your
Savior right
now? Would
you like to have
a personal
relationship with God right now and know that when you die you
will experience eternal life with Him? If so, then trust Him and Him
alone. Trust Christ not only with your head but with your whole
heart.

14
What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ with your heart? It
means that you not only believe the facts concerning who you are
(a sinner) and what Jesus Christ has done for you (died on the cross
in your place and arose from the dead), but that you place your
complete trust in Him and
what He has done for you
for your eternal well-being.

Believe what God’s Word

says concerning the fol-
lowing facts:

First, we all are sinners and

need the Savior; second,
we are totally unable to do
anything to save ourselves;
and third, God has provid-
ed a full and eternal salva-
tion through the death,
burial, and resurrection of
His dear Son.

Turn your confidence away

from those things through
which you had hoped to
attain salvation—“doing
good,” sacraments, rituals,
church membership, morality, baptism, spirituality, or any other
thing. Do not believe the false notion that “death ends it all.” Rath-
er, place your trust—your faith—only in the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He has accomplished for you on Calvary’s cross. Receive this
glorious invitation that God extends to every sinner.

Along with this simple invitation, however, please keep in mind

the dire condition of all who disregard God’s offer to receive His
free gift of salvation. The apostle Paul preached to all the unsaved

15
“repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Acts 20:21). This speaks of the condition that exists between God
and all who are without Christ—a change toward God is desper-
ately needed! We must be convicted of the fact that our sin has
separated us from an all-holy, all-righteous God. All who have not
believed this gospel message and have not, therefore, received His
Son are at this very moment alienated from Him.

No matter how religious or how good someone may seem to be, if

he has not yet received Jesus Christ as his Savior, then he is utterly
lost in sin and, in reality, is an enemy of almighty God. The Bible
states without equivocation, “He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

All who turn to God from their false confidences and, instead,
believe in simple, childlike faith what the Bible says concerning
these imperative truths will have, at this moment, everlasting life!
Upon believing the gospel, your sins are washed away, the Holy
Spirit comes to dwell within, and you become a child of God. You

16
actually possess a relationship with the one, true God. Accept the
blessed promises of the Word of God as your own and rely upon
the Author of those promises to keep them both now and for all
eternity. Receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior today!

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salva-
tion” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

“Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation
22:17b).

17
 Free Bible Study Guide!
If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior,
we would like to help you in your new life with
Christ. Write to us, and we would be happy to
send you a complimentary copy of Feature: A
Daily Bible Study Guide. This quarterly publica-
tion seeks to guide you into the truth of God’s
Word each day and provide a practical and rel-
evant application of Scripture to your life.

Please write to us at:

Fundamental Evangelistic Association

2251 E. Beechwood Ave.
Fresno, CA 93720

18
Other Resources Available
From the FEA:

Biblical Basics for

Believers is a 166-page book
specifically designed to direct
the new Christian as well as the
growing Christian into a pro-
gram of discipleship through
a careful study of the
teaching of the Word of God and
the application of biblical doc-
trine to everyday living—good
for personal, one-on-one,
or group study.

Grounded: A Devotional Guide

for Christian Youth is a Bible
study guide written especially
for Christian young people. It is
both relevant and reverent and
seeks to guide the Christian
young person into the Word of
God with personal application.
This first volume contains 100
Bible studies plus thought-pro-
voking questions at the end of
each study—great for teens or
family devotions.

Biblical Basics for Believers: $10.00 (+ $3.00 postage)*

Grounded: $8.00 (+ $2.00 postage)*
*Prices for U.S. only. Contact us for price information for non-U.S. or bulk orders.

19
 About the Fundamental Evangelistic Association (FEA)

The FEA was organized by M. H. Reynolds Sr. and six other godly
men in 1928 and incorporated in the state of California as a reli-
gious nonprofit organization in 1929. The purpose of the FEA from
its inception has been to boldly preach the gospel, teach God’s
Word, and contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude
3). The local church headquarters from which the FEA ministry is
carried forth is Grace Bible Church in Fresno, California.

The FEA strives to be a help and encouragement to God’s people

through the publications of Foundation magazine, Feature: A Dai-
ly Bible Study Guide, The Bright Spot, and several other books and
leaflets. In addition, the “What Does the Bible Say?” podcast and
other Internet resources are available through the FEA’s website.
Because the FEA is a faith ministry not dependent on advertising,
denominational funds, fund raising programs, or outside revenue,
support from individuals and churches that agree with its position
and see a need for this ministry is of paramount importance. Fel-
lowship, prayers, and financial support are greatly appreciated.
For further information about the FEA, visit www.feasite.org.

About the Authors

Dennis Costella (1948-2011) served as the director of the Fun-

damental Evangelistic Association from 1997-2011. He pastored
churches in Los Angeles, Los Osos, and Fresno, California. For
years, he served as the voice of the “What Does the Bible Say?”
radio broadcast and was the editor of Foundation magazine and a
contributor to Feature: A Daily Bible Study Guide.

Matt Costella currently serves as the director of the Fundamental

Evangelistic Association and is a pastor at Grace Bible Church of
Fresno, California. He is the editor of Foundation magazine, a con-
tributor to Feature: A Daily Bible Study Guide, and the author of
several books and articles available from the Fundamental Evan-
gelistic Association. He also co-hosts the “What Does the Bible
Say?” podcast.

20
We all spend a great amount of time, effort, and money to
care for our earthly needs. However, few seem concerned
about their eternal well-being. Are we too busy to consider
what happens when this life is over? Long ago Jesus Christ
asked, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37). Do you have the
answers to these vital questions? Do you know where you
will spend eternity?

This booklet encourages every reader to take a few mo-

ments and simply consider what the Bible says about life
now and in the hereafter. Everybody is believing or trusting
in something or someone when it comes to the answers
to life’s most important questions. God wants everyone to
know the truth and find the answers in His Word.

Fundamental Evangelistic Association

2251 E. Beechwood Avenue
Fresno, CA 93720
www.feasite.org