Salvation

Salvation!

I have been thinking about what non-believers and nominal Christians think about GOD, most think either that He is a judgmental being that holds people to an unattainable or unreasonable standard. Or that He just does not care what happens to us and in His anger causes bad things to happen to us.

Pastor Chris Leeper said, that many in the Church in America believe that Christianity is all cupcakes and ice cream. JESUS did not teach this, He told us to take up our cross and follow Him. When GOD gives us something He also tells us to give it to others, it’s not just for us.

Joseph Prince said that grace is the flow of GOD’s provision for believers and living under the law squeezes it closed.

Is it oxymoronic to say: “Christianity is about keeping the 10 commandments or going to hell.” and “GOD loves us and excepts us as we are without judgment.” No, actually both are wrong!

Is it oxymoronic to say: “GOD is Love!” and “GOD will judge everyone!” No, these are both true statements.

What do these random thoughts have in common? They speak of the misconception that many people whether believers or not have about GOD.

GOD is Love and He is the Righteous Judge of all His creation! But, He is not going around looking for people to condemn.

“GOD so loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. He did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved. Those who believe in Him are not condemned but those who do not believe in the only begotten Son are condemned already because they do not believe. The condemnation is that the only begotten Son is light and life and they rejected Him choosing evil rather than light.” John 3:16-19 my paraphrase.

The Gospel is good news there is nothing good about hell except not going there. The Church in America fell into the habit of preaching hell fire and damnation trying to convince people to stop sinning so that they would not go to hell. JESUS came as the demonstration of GOD’s love to those already condemned to hell so that in believing in Him they would be delivered from hell. JESUS taught more about the Kingdom of GOD than hell because humanity was already condemned to eternal hell but He wanted to save us to His eternal Kingdom.

Keeping the 10 commandments or religious rules will not save anyone from hell or get anyone into Heaven. Rules and regulations stifle faith and growth, the two things that every believer needs to have in their life. If we make being a Christian about keeping rules and doing works we will choke off GOD’s grace which is the flow of His love, mercy, favor, provision, healing, etc.

No Person Will Go To Hell For Any Sin They Have Committed. Every Person Who Goes To Hell Will Go Because They Rejected JESUS, GOD’s Gift Of Salvation To Humanity! This is the Gospel, the good news that there is true salvation, a gift from GOD!

Why is it so hard for people to believe that GOD is who He says He is? Even many Christians have a hard time believing what GOD reveals about himself in the Bible. I myself have had experiential doubts while knowing what the Bible says. So why do we as humans, the favored creation of GOD, have such doubts about GOD?

Take salvation from an eternity in hell, no person in their heart of hearts really wants to go to hell and suffer for eternity. Yet we easily reject the only promise of salvation from hell, JESUS’ life, death and resurrection. No religion offers a guarantee of salvation other than Islam, which says (to my limited understanding) that if you die in defense of or while expanding their religion by conquering you will go to paradise.  That in reality is not a faith based religion but a works based religion, just like every other religion. They all teach that you must earn your way to paradise, nirvana (or whatever they call it) and it may take many lifetimes or you may never achieve paradise at all (that would be hell on earth).

So why is it so hard to believe that GOD so loved the world that He saves us from eternal judgment in hell? Is it that GOD so loves us? No religious founder or god loves humanity they do not even care if you make it to their version of heaven. It is about you doing enough to earn their respect or acceptance and then you can enter into their godhood or whatever they are.

Many reject the concept of hell, a place that we go to when our physical life is over if we rejected JESUS, where we are tormented for how we lived our life. Some religions do not even speak of a hell and of course those who say they do not believe in GOD believe that we just die and cease to exist (what a sad empty concept).

So what is wrong with earning our way into heaven? Nothing, if we were able to and it was the requirement for entrance. That is why in some religions it takes many lifetimes or if you are allowed only one lifetime it is impossible to know before your physical death whether you have achieved heaven. So according to religion you cannot know if you have earned heaven and you cannot know if a family member or friend has earned heaven; and after death we are not known to the living. So in religion we always strive but never know.

So what does the Bible teach about salvation? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD. He was in the beginning with GOD. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  For GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of GOD. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in GOD.”  John 1:1-5; 3:16-21.

It seems clear to me even though I did not understand how it worked early in my Christian life. So let me clear up this issue, Christianity is not a religion it is a life! We have life from GOD who created everything that exists and we have new life (being born again) in Christ Jesus. GOD did not create us to be His slaves or to satisfy His ego by making life hard for us. GOD created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. They were immortal beings in a perfect environment with only two requirements, take care of the earth and populate it; and not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was it. GOD walked and talked with them, but through deception and rebellion they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus rebellion (sin) entered the heart of man and he became corrupt and his flesh began to die. That is why we are born into sin, destined for eternal hell. Hell was created for Lucifer, the devil and the angels who joined him in his rebellion against GOD, hell was created as the eternal place of their punishment, and Adam having joined in the devil’s rebellion now condemned humanity to the judgment of eternal damnation in hell.

That is why GOD ordained and JESUS accepted the call of the Cross, but it could only work if a man, the Son of Man – JESUS CHRIST, paid the price of redemption. Under GOD’s law, the 10 commandments, man was not able to redeem himself. So GOD Himself had to do it and it had to be something that man could not do for himself. Thus JESUS the only begotten Son of GOD (virgin birth) lived as a human resisting every temptation that we have to face and living a sinless life, gave His life on the Cross (becoming sin for us). Because we could not do it ourself!

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of CHRIST, for it is the power of salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of GOD is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17

So what is clear is that if you reject GOD’s plan of salvation through JESUS CHRIST than you will spend eternity in hell!

If you do not want to go to hell than the only option is to believe that The One True GOD JEHOVAH gave His Only Son, JESUS CHRIST to be a sacrifice for the sins of humanity; so that everyone that believes and excepts this gift of salvation will not go to hell.