WARNING
If you are a big fan of “fairness”, you may not like this week’s post.
My sons often would come to me with a complaint…….it often ended with the statement……..”It’s not fair!” I would say to them, “check your contract…….where does it say that life is fair?”
The fact is that there is very little in life that is fair. A two year old kid gets cancer. A bike rider is mowed down by a careless 80 year old woman. A dynamic woman who is the pillar of her family gets ALS.
It’s not fair!
So what does this have to do with hell?
We have all done things that are wrong…….some more than others. In a perfectly fair system, you could make a case that we are all doomed to hell. But, fortunately, fairness has nothing to do with it. You and I might not approve of this………but we don’t get to make up the rules. God does.
So what are the rules for avoiding hell?
Recognize Jesus as God.
Accept his gift of forgiveness……blanket forgiveness………for every single rotten thing you have ever done….or thought about doing…….even the stuff you got away with…… or thought you got away with.
It’s just that easy.
Or you could deny his existence……his divinity. But, if you do…..you had better be right. I worry a lot about my friends who deny God……..without ever considering what it might cost them…….if they are wrong.
What are the practical implications of these simple rules?
The dividing line between heaven and hell is not goodness(an extremely common misconception)……it is forgiveness.
This bears repeating.
The dividing line between heaven and hell is not goodness……it is forgiveness.
And that’s not fair.
On the other hand, absolute fairness could mean universal damnation.
So………
Heaven will not be full of good people. It will be full of forgiven sinners.
Hell will not be full of bad people…….it will be full of unforgiven sinners.
What follows is one of the greatest ironies of life.
The people in hell will not be substantially different from the people in heaven. Some of the people in heaven will have been far less “good” in their lifetimes than some of the people in hell were.
Some of the people in hell will be really nice people. Some of them will be your friends. Some of them will be members of your family.
One of them will be a real Prince of a man……..the nicest guy in hell.
It’s not fair……..but, hey, nothing is.
So, do you know somebody really nice…….a guy who would give you the shirt off his back…..a guy who would drop whatever he was doing to come to your rescue…..a guy who doesn’t believe…….a guy who is a candidate for the nicest guy in hell?
Something to think about.
Christians spend a lot of effort trying to “save” people who are “bad”. Maybe we need to invest some effort in the really nice people. Maybe we can help create the nicest guy who is NOT in hell.
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Paul, NIV
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus, NIV
Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone .’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved .”
Luke, NIV
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul, NIV
“so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus/John, NIV