“Jesus gave His life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.” (Galatians 1:4-5 NLT)
As a rule, trust is not something we take for granted but must be earned through life’s experiences. We learn to trust someone’s work ethic because they’ve proven themselves trustworthy over time. We entrust our secrets to people we’ve come to believe will not share them with others.
The Lord Jesus has proven He is trustworthy, not only through His sinless life, but through His sacrificial death He died in our place. Our sin, our determination to manage and run our own lives, has earned us a death penalty we couldn’t have ever paid, not even in eternity. That’s what Hell is, our eternal effort to pay the penalty for our own sin.
We tend in this life to ignore the gravity of our sin, choosing rather to believe it’s not a big deal. Yet, in God’s eyes, it’s an enormous violation of His holiness. Our sin is what cost His only Son, Jesus, His life, so He’s certainly not going to ignore our ongoing violations of His directive for us to repent and be saved from our sin.
It’s ironic on many levels that most people don’t even think of how they live as “sinful” and in violation of God’s laws. They’re just living like every other person on earth. And to confront them with the truth of God’s Word that we’re sinners bound for hell is an afront to their intellect, in their mind, an archaic pronouncement unworthy of their attention.
Why won’t they listen? Largely, I’m convinced, because they don’t trust the words of their messenger. That’s why establishing friendship with someone before sharing our faith is often a reasonable plan. However, there are dangers involved. You must know your faith is strong enough to withstand their intellectual and often seeming very reasonable arguments against our faith.
Trust is earned over time, so developing friendships can give ample time for not only the person’s position on things to change, but our own. The most convincing argument in my mind is not only who Jesus is, but what He did in our place. Tim Keller wrote: “A God who substitutes himself for us and suffers so that we may go free is a God you can trust.”
Too often people are reluctant to place their faith in Christ and receive forgiveness of their sin because they don’t realize the gravity of their sin-debt. Most people view themselves as a “good” person, undeserving of the harsh judgment of an “angry God,” never realizing that anger isn’t His motive, but love.
Only a loving, compassionate, and caring heavenly Father would allow His only perfect, sinless Son to substitute His life for sinful, undeserving, and belligerent human beings who have rebelled against God and all that is truly good. Anyone who understands who God is and what He did must come to terms with the price He’s paid for our redemption.
Trust is a very small price to pay in return for all that God has done to make it possible for us to miss hell and go to heaven. We can argue all day long about every theological, moral, social, or humanitarian reason hell shouldn’t exist, but God designed it for a very specific reason and has given us a very clear means of missing it if we’ll only allow His Spirit to open our hearts and minds and give us the gumption to receive the gift of eternal life He’s offering. If only we’ll trust Him.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 