I have a friend who is not a Christian. He is a nice guy…..by any measure, a good man. Once, in our conversation, the topic of Christianity came up. I asked if he was a Christian. His reply was something to the effect of:

“Never have been……besides, if I became one now…….it would cause all kinds of confusion up there……..they wouldn’t know what to do with me”

I think that what he meant was that it would be hypocritical to ask for forgiveness from Jesus after a lifetime of denying him, ignoring him, and marginalizing him.

By human standards, this is a very reasonable position. Intellectually……..it is consistent……..even honorable. Internally, what my friend was saying was, “I’ve lived my entire life as a secular humanist……..it’s too late for me”.

I hear this a lot. I think that many people use this argument as a foil so that they don’t have to put up with my “preaching”. But, the fear of hypocrisy is also at play for many of these people. They don’t want someone to say at their baptism……..”isn’t that the guy who once had a “God is Dead” bumper sticker?”

First off, let me make something clear. If getting to paradise requires me to be a hypocrit…….sign me up.

There it is……..I am a card carrying hypocrit. Along the way, I have broken about every rule there is at least once……and some of them many times. But, along the way, I have also accepted Jesus……….and his way of living…….love God…….love your neighbor. And though I often fall short, I am trying to be a better man.

So, I tell you that you shouldn’t steal, though I have.

I tell you that you shouldn’t lie, though I have.

I tell you that you shouldn’t covet, though I have.

You get the point…….BTW, the list above is nowhere close to a comprehensive account of my depradations.

And this brings us to the central question of this post:

Who cares if I messed up?………Who cares if you messed up?……….or more to the point….Does God care that we have messed up?

God must care about sin………he spents a lot of ink on the topic in the “users manual”. But, does he care enough to deny us paradise because we messed up?

It depends………

It depends on how you finish.

You can humble yourself and submit to your creator.

Or

You can claw your way up onto the highest ground that you can find…….and scream……”I’m in charge here!”

In the final analysis…….there is only one thing that you can screw up that will exclude you from paradise…….only one:

Denying the existence of God, his son Jesus, and the holy spirit.

Denying the Trinity……….will exclude you from paradise.

But, you can fix that, even with your last breath.

So…….is it too late for me?

Is it too late for you?

Not if you are breathing.

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke, a conversation between Jesus and the thief Dismas during their crucifixion, ESV

It happens every day.

Someone tells me something and it’s just not true.

Often this comes in the form of a “robocall”…….sometimes it happens in a face to face conversation. This is so common that we are reaching the point where we treat everything that we are told with skepticism. Then, we scour the internet to find someone who tells us that we are right and the other guy is wrong.

The trouble with this is that no matter what crazy idea you believe……..in 10 minutes, you can find 10 web sites that will tell you that you are right. The result is that we become extremely confident that we are right and that the people who disagree with us are idiots. We are highly confident…………..whether we are right or wrong.

We live in a culture of untruth. Often, a well crafted lie is seen as a mark of industry. Some businesses even seek out skilled liars. Politicians are notorious for this………and we repeatedly re-elect them. In a way, we hire them for their effectiveness in selling a good lie……..a lie that serves our appetites………our lie.

The planet is not getting warmer.

An unborn child is not a human being.

And many more.

So……..what can we learn about untruth?

It turns out that untruth comes in two flavors:

The untruth told by someone who knows it is untrue…….the straight up lie.

The untruth told by a good person………who sincerely believes it………or at least has convinced himself that it has value. This is typically an untruth that serves the appetites of the one who believes it.

The first of these is common.

But, it is the second flavor of untruth that is the most dangerous. This second flavor of untruth is very common in our political conversation. The hallmark of this flavor of untruth is that it is self serving. We believe in something…….primarily because it serves our interests……whether it is true or not is a secondary consideration. In effect, we bend the truth until it conforms to our appetites.

We believe that the planet is not getting warmer because we don’t want to sacrifice our standard of living to deal with it.

We believe that an 8 week fetus is not a human being because we want access to abortion on demand.

In our modern culture, the facts……the truth…..have become subservient to our appetites. We make decisions on what to believe based first on what we want……..and only then, if ever, do we ask if it is true.

I used to think that this second flavor of untruth was not a lie. But, I have come to realize that it too…..is a lie. I used to tell my sons that the most dangerous lie that you will ever tell……….is the lie that you tell yourself. Our culture is being torn apart by people……..good people…….who have convinced themselves that an idea is valid……..not because the facts support it……not because it is true……but because it supports their appetites.

So…….the challenge this week is that we all need to take a long, hard, jaundiced look at the ideas that we hold dear……..and ask the question, “is it true?”.

We must make our appetites, our politics, our culture subservient to the truth…….not the other way around.

If you are looking for a reference point…….an anchor to the truth………the Bible is a great place to start……begin with the words of Jesus. Then…..when the Bible is in conflict with your appetites……..discard your appetites…….not the Bible.

This will not be easy. You will have to discard some things that are a big part of your identity. This may change how you see yourself………it may even change who you are. And it is going to cost you……..in the short run. It will cost you time. It will cost you money. It might even cost you a friendship or two.

But, it will be a good warm up exercise for paradise………because there will be no untruth there.

So…..you might as well start getting used to the truth now.

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Mark Twain

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus, ESV

This post is aimed at a group of people who believe in 4 things:

Life after death.
Heaven
Hell
Eternity

If you do not believe in these things, this post will mean little to you…………but……..you had better be right…….because if you are wrong…….you are headed for disaster.

If you believe in an afterlife that you have dreamed up yourself……..that you have created…….to suit your appetites……….then you have nothing to worry about. You are God. Again, if you are wrong……if, in fact, you are not God……..then you too are headed for disaster.

The final stanza of Invictus, a poem by William Henley

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Henley was a committed atheist. He suffered from tuberculosis of the bone for his entire life and died from it at age 53.

I have always viewed this masterful poem as an exercise in hubris……….the work of a fool whistling past the graveyard.

I was wrong.

Invictus is the definitive description of the human condition……whether you are a Christian……..or not. It dovetails beautifully with the Bible and the teaching of Jesus.

The old Testament teaches:

Eternity
Life after death
Free will

The New Testament teaches:

Paradise
Hell
Redemption

To summarize the Bible:

The natural fate of man after the fall………is hell.
Man’s default destination……….unfortunately….is hell.
Man has absolute free will.
God invites us to paradise…….on two and only two conditions……..that you recognize the Trinity as divine and that you accept Jesus’s gift of redemption.

The key to Christianity and the Bible……from the human side…….is free will.

And that also is the crux of Invictus.

The lesson of Invictus is that you are in absolute control. You, and only you, determine your destiny.

You will experience a brief period of triumph and tragedy during your time in this world. But…….you will spend eternity…….the vast majority of your existence……in paradise……..or in hell.

Which of these eternal destinies you will experience…….is entirely up to you…….courtesy of God’s gift of free will. By active choice…….or by default……..you will choose……you are choosing……. your destiny.

The great irony here…….is that one of the greatest truths of Christianity was beautifully taught……..by a committed atheist.

You truly are……..”the master of your fate”.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob…..”

Moses, ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Paul, ESV

Fear God.

That simple command is plastered all over the Bible and it is hard teaching.

As with other things that are repeated over and over……it must be important……….terribly important.

And yet, we tend to ignore it. We dismiss it. We tone it down. One writer whom I really respect says that it really means to respect or revere God.

But that is not what it says……..the Bible clearly says “fear God”………over and over.

And we really don’t like that…….in fact, we don’t approve.

We don’t approve because we want God to be the kind, loving, soft focus guy who comforts us, blesses us, and protects us.

We don’t approve because we don’t want God to be the stern disciplinarian who punishes us when we mess up. We love the carrot……..but we hate the stick.

The thing is………that God is both. He created paradise……….but he also created hell.

God can invite you into paradise for eternity……..but he can also damn you to hell……..for eternity.

We don’t approve because we don’t want to be punished when we mess up. So…….we ignore hell……..we gloss over hell………many Christians even deny its existence completely. It is a whole lot more comfortable living however you please when there is no consequence for your misbehavior.

So…….we pick through the Bible and memorize and quote the parts that make us feel safe and loved. My favorite is the 23rd psalm………”and I will live in the house of the Lord forever”. But, how often do you hear a Christian quote this……..”fear God”?

Here are the cold hard facts:

God created you.
God loves you more than you can know.
God blesses you…….every day.
God wants you to spend eternity with him in paradise.

But

He will send you to a burning eternal hell if he has to.

How do we reconcile this?

More to the point……..how does God reconcile this?

Enter Jesus.

Jesus is God’s “GET OUT OF HELL FREE CARD”.

The result of Jesus’s ministry is this simple point.

God does send people to hell…….he can send you to hell……or me…….and we should fear that…..we should fear him.

BUT

God will only send you to hell if you consciously decide to reject Jesus and his “get out of hell free card”.

God will only send you to hell…….if you consciously choose to go there.

This changes the landscape completely.

Yes…….God will send you to hell……you can count on it……..but only if you decide to go there by rejecting him……by denying him. And ignoring hell, refusing to “fear God” is…..by default…..a decision to go there.

Ironically………the result of Jesus’s ministry is this:

You really are “the master of your fate……..the captain of your soul”.

Fearing God is like the being the captain of a ship…..he fears the rock……but whether he wrecks on it is entirely his decision.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus, Henley

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Jesus, ESV

For most of my life I have misunderstood this verse. I always thought that it was about Satan. But Satan, while he wants you in hell…….while he will lure you into hell…….does not have the authority or the power to send you to hell. If he did……we would all be in big trouble. Only God has the power and authority to send you to hell. This verse is a warning that God may send you to a burning eternal hell……..BUT………only if you are determined to go there.

So…….it is entirely appropriate to fear God……..to fear him enough to accept his grace……..his gift of forgiveness……..his parental love.