I have been a believer since my teens. I’m now 75 and find myself with an addiction to alcohol. I totally believe in Jesus Christ but can’t beat this disease. Does this mean I won’t go to Heaven?
If you “totally believe in Jesus Christ” you WILL go to heaven when you die or when the Lord returns to take believers home to heaven. The moment you believed on Jesus Christ you were “born again” and became a “child of God.” John 1:12-13 states, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were BORN, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but OF GOD” (NJKV). The New Birth is what fits one for heaven as we see in Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3:3 & 5, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God…unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” So, all who are “born again” will enter into the kingdom of God (the “kingdom of God” refers to both heaven and the coming earthly kingdom that Jesus will establish when He returns to earth as King of kings, and Lord of lords).
There was nothing you could do to merit heaven AND there is nothing you can do to forfeit heaven once you have been born again. Listen to these words of assurance from the lips of Jesus in John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I GIVE THEM ETERNAL LIFE, and THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My father are one.” One has rightly said that the believer is in “the double grasp of the Father and the Son!” This means that NO ONE (including YOU), can take you out of their hands! You are eternally secure.
Now as to your addiction to alcohol, this is a serious sin and you do need to be delivered from it. The world would have you join a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous, but there is no guarantee that you will experience deliverance by leaning on “fellow alcoholics” to help you not to drink. The Lord Jesus has a better plan that guarantees deliverance. Listen to His words in John 8:31-32, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE’.” The “freedom” that Jesus is speaking of here is “freedom from the bondage of sin” (which would include freedom from alcohol, drugs, sexual addiction, or anything that keeps one in bondage to sin). We know that Jesus is referring to “bondage to sin” because of what He says next in verses 34 & 36, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin…therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
The key to your deliverance is in His words, “If you abide in My word,” for He promises you that if you do “the truth shall make you free.” The Word of God can and does liberate us from sin! The Psalmist could say, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I MIGHT NOT SIN AGAINST YOU” (Psalm 119:11).
The Word of God will keep us in constant fellowship with the Lord Jesus, and when we are in fellowship with Him WE WILL NOT SIN. That is why Jesus could say, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” But you MUST continually “abide in His Word” in order “abide in fellowship with Jesus.” John 15:3-5 confirms this, “You are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING.” I pray you will lay hold of this truth, for just as you were powerless to save yourself from Hell, so you are powerless to save yourself from sin. The Lord Jesus died to save you from hell and now He wants to give you the power to set you free from sin. (294.1) (DO)