It ranks right up there with “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…” as bad worldly theological ideas go. I’ll say on the front end that Grace is so much bigger than any of us realize. It’s as big as God the Father Himself, and just as equally misunderstood by our limited human minds. So I’m not about to even try to discuss the salvation of actual children. I’m not discussing “age of accountability”. I’m not discussing or debating original sin and all being born sinners and the wages of sin being death, either. God will be the judge of the guilty and the saved, and God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Whatever their age. Regardless of how we feel about it. Ask Jonah about Nineveh the next time you wonder if God cares what you think about whom He’ll save. However, as a general point of the devotional (yeah, this is a big disclaimer) I’m simply using the “all good children go to Heaven” as a spring board and catchy title to address the “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because he never went to church” safety net that we try to use.
The Beatles sang, “all you need is love…love is all you
need!” All you need is love?? It’s true that it’s not even debatable that
there are LOTS of verses and passages about the importance of love and loving
your neighbor, but is love ALL you really need?
Not according to John 14:6. Jesus
told us explicitly, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life;
no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
We say, “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert
great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…” According to Jesus, no one comes to the
Father except through Him. Will there be
room for Grace? Possibly. Maybe even likely. Again that’s not my call, and it’s not the
plan of Salvation I would recommend.
It’s not my job to judge the innocent and the guilty. The Bible is irrefutably clear on who will be
the One to separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats. It ain’t me!
The job that I’ve been given is to share the Gospel with everyone I
meet. My job is go into the fields and
grow wheat! My job is go into the fields
and pull some magic trick of turning goats into sheep! So let me pose this question: Who gets judged harsher, those who never hear
the gospel, or those who have and accepted it but never shared it because it
made them uncomfortable? The world says,
“Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian
here) to Hell just because…” I ask,
“Surely God wouldn’t send a good Christian like (insert great guy Christian
here) to Hell just because he was embarrassed to share the Gospel.”
Those are the questions where Grace gets really big, but
we still start sweating just a little bit.
Luke 9:26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the
glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Mark 8:38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and
My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be
ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” No qualifiers on those, were there? Nothing there about “non-believers” or
“non-Christians” or anything else. Both
verses there simply say “For whoever”.
Yeah, that’s when our concept of Grace gets really big. When we’re the ones standing behind the defendant’s
table, Grace gets really big really quickly.
It’s sad how it gets really big for us when we need it to, but not so
much for others.
But again, there’s the point of
Grace. My point isn’t about whether God
will send good people to Hell. And yes,
I’m fully aware that I keep making points that aren’t really my point. I’ll apologize now and let you know that’s
it’s just one of the hazards of reading a devotional written by someone with
focus problems. The true point is pretty
obvious, though.
If you call yourself a Christian, then you have work to do, so why haven’t we started it? Is it because we’re lazy? Is it because we’re scared? Is it because it makes us uncomfortable to say “Jesus” in front of people? Do I keep using the pronouns “we” and “us” because it keeps me from pointing this bullet at myself…because I’m the world’s worst at shirking the duty that I’ve been charged to do? Could I have looked at myself in a mirror and asked myself those exact same questions? No, I couldn’t. Because I’m ashamed and embarrassed of the answer that I’d be forced to give when I’m honest with myself. So I don’t ask myself that question. I don’t ask myself that question, and then I use pronouns like “us” and “we” so that I’m not alone behind that defendant’s table. When Jesus Christ sits in the judge’s seat, and the Holy Spirit stands behind the prosecution table, it gets really unnerving to stand there alone at the defendant’s table. So if there are more of us standing behind the defendant’s table (there’s that “us” creeping in again), then surely God couldn’t throw us ALL into Hell for being ashamed to say “Jesus” in front of people, right?
Luckily, we’re not alone behind the
defendant’s table. Not even if it’s not
all us. If it’s just me, I’m still not
alone. Jesus Christ testifies on my
behalf. Wait, wasn’t Jesus the
judge? Yeah…have some Trinity and wrap
your head around it for a little bit.
Jesus Christ died for my sins…and gave me Grace. It puts Him in charge of the sentencing and
the parole, if you will. So should we purposely
not share the Gospel because of God’s Grace?
Well not to sound like Paul writing to the Romans when they asked if
they should keep sinning so Grace may abound – BUT, “by no means!” Jesus being my defender and my judge doesn’t
exclude me from my responsibilities of sharing the Gospel any more than it does
my need to repent from my sinful ways and live a new life.
Listen for the Whisper that sounds like
the old church hymn “We’ll work ‘til Jesus comes…” – that same one I reference
WAY back in the “We Were Soldiers” devotional series (although it wasn’t the
Whisper we were listening for then).
This whole “Christianity Thing” isn’t something where we Hear the
Gospel, Believe it to be the truth, Repent of our sins, Confess Jesus Christ is
the Son of God and our Savior, and then we’re Baptized and now “it is
finished.” Baptism isn’t the end. It’s barely the beginning. Every single day we have work to do. We have work to do on ourselves, and we have
work to do in the world. And there I go
with “we” again…I’ve used “we” so many times, I’m starting to sound
French. But when it comes judgment time,
there’ll be nobody there but me. Each of
us stands alone before Christ to give an account for our actions. So instead of using “we” so frequently, maybe
I should just own it. Because on
Christ’s Day of Judgment, when He judges the world, it’s just going to be
me. And every day, I have work to do. I have work to do on myself, and I have work
to do in the world. Am I denying myself
daily? Am I growing my Fruits of the
Spirit? Am I going into the world
preaching the Gospel and making new disciples?
Am I?
There are no tears in Heaven, but how much regret will there be in the Courtroom. I don’t mean just regret from the unsaved people wishing that they had believed when they had time. I mean regret from me. I’m not going to use a single “us” or “we” at all in this. Because this is personal. This is something that I have to place on my own shoulders alone. “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…” Because what? Because it was someone that I knew, and didn’t share the Gospel with them? If I did, and they rejected Christ, then maybe I’m sad because they wasted their opportunity. What if they never had the opportunity? What if I was the only Christian they knew…I was the only person in a position to tell them and didn’t? Talk about regret!!
Can I handle being seated in that courtroom awaiting my own trial and seeing “that guy” getting found guilty? “You are guilty of sin without accepting the gift of Grace to pardon those sins!” Can I handle watching someone being sentenced to eternity in Hell because it made me uncomfortable to talk to them about Jesus? They had one chance. I was it. I was uncomfortable, so they go to Hell. No “us”. No “we”. Just me. My only excuse, the sum of my defense is the word “uncomfortable”? Does Jesus look at me from the judge’s chair – straight at me – with a sad look on His face? Does He look down at the scars in His hands that He took for me, and then hold them up, like “I did this for you, and you were uncomfortable simply talking about me.” For me, Jesus was willing to endure unthinkable suffering and pain, and then death. And, oh the horror, it makes ME uncomfortable to simply TELL that to someone else.
I need to realize the magnitude of what I just said. I was uncomfortable talking about Jesus, so someone I know goes to Hell. Not just the Sodom and Gomorrah sinners. Not just the “sinners” that I’ve deemed not worthy in my self-righteous opinion. My neighbors, my friends, my family members, my co-workers going to Hell because I was uncomfortable. I don’t need the Holy Spirit behind the prosecution table trying to convict me. I’ve convicted myself. I have a job to do, and haven’t done it. My sole excuse for not doing it is because of some social embarrassment or awkward feelings. What if that “great guy” turns and looks at me…his eyes say, “you could have saved me from this.” Can I handle that regret? Can I handle Jesus looking at me with that disappointment on His face? “I died for you, and you were ashamed to talk about me?” Can I handle that regret?
The Bible says that my judgment will come like a thief in
the night. How many times have I seen unexpected
deaths? Heart attacks, strokes, car
crashes…all thieves in the night. That
thief in the night just robbed me of my next chance to tell that “great
guy”…because it was either him (or me) that had that “thief in the night”
moment. Of all the regrets of things I
wished I’d said to those I’ve lost, how far up the list of those things is
“Jesus loved you enough to die for you?
Won’t you turn to Him?” Grace is
getting really big for me again. Talk
about faith and hope! I hope that God
takes away that regret…or gives me a chance to fix it before it becomes a
regret. Because I can’t handle that
regret. The question I have to ask the
man that looks back at me from my mirror is, “does the fear of that regret make
me more uncomfortable than the uncomfortable feeling of talking to someone
about Jesus?” How about you?
~Dwayne
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com
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