“Those who follow the right path fear the Lord; those who take the wrong path despise Him…There is a path that seems right, but it ends in death.” (Proverbs 14:2, 12 NLT)
As human beings we follow the path that makes the most sense to us. Often, because of where we’re born, how we’re raised, whether we had parents who loved us, rude and mean parents, or no parents, we draw conclusions about ourselves and about God that are skewed to align with how we feel about ourselves, our surroundings, and our life’s experiences. Too often we’re so grounded in those beliefs, we’re blinded to other options.
Sometimes those experiences drive us to the foot of the Cross where we find forgiveness, hope, joy, and satisfaction we never dared dream existed; yet, others, far too many others, avoid all forms of “religion”, believing it is fantasy and wishful thinking. It’s critical that we understand there is a vast difference between religion and a personal love relationship with the Lord of Creation. Religion is cold, boring, lifeless, and demands things of us that fit whatever “brand” of religion it is.
Jesus, on the other hand, offers love, forgiveness, hope, satisfaction, opportunity to feel alive, useful, giving purpose to our life and a sense of mission when we finally understand WHY we were born. When we finally understand who Jesus is, then we’ll begin to understand why there’s a heaven and why there must be a hell.
If there is a heaven to reward those who love and have served the Lord, there must be a place for those who have never desired to serve Him or even to be in His presence. The Lord never forces us to love Him or even be in His holy presence. The choice is always and only ours, until the end.
Hell isn’t simply a place to punish “bad” people, it was originally designed and planned for the devil and his “angels” who rebelled against God and went to war against God and His holy family. However, when Adam and Eve chose to sin against God and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, that, in a sense, was their “hell”. Being removed from God’s intimate presence is hell and is in and of itself the punishment we all deserve because of our rebellion against God; our decision to choose our way instead of His way for our lives.
And some may think: “Whoa! I’ve never rebelled against God!” And here’s the truth – as human beings we are born into rebellion, because, thanks to our original parents, we have an innate bent to sin. It’s in our nature to rebel against God and choose our own way, but thanks to the mercy and grace of God, He has made a way for us, through Jesus, to be forgiven and given new, eternal life with Him in heaven.
But what about those who never choose Jesus? Where will they go? That’s now what hell is, the eternal residence of all those who refuse to receive forgiveness and new life through Jesus. Will everyone be punished the same? Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that, but my sense is the “Lake of Fire” will be different for the devil and his angels than for someone who simply chose not to be a Jesus follower but lived a decent life.
All will experience agony that will burn in their soul, but it won’t be literal fire, but the burning sense of anguish they will feel for all eternity for not choosing Jesus when they could have. How do I know that? Because on the Day of Judgment the Lord has set aside to judge the sins of all mankind, including mine and yours, and on that day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. What does that mean? It means everyone who has ever lived will have a perfect understanding, not only of who God and Jesus is, but who they are in relationship with Him. We’ll not only perfectly understand why we are in heaven or hell, we’ll be in complete agreement with God’s decision to allow us to be there.
Perhaps today you’re confused and uncertain about where you’ll spend eternity or why, but by God’s grace and because of who Jesus is and what He did, you can have certainty, knowing when you close your eyes in death you will open them in the presence of your loving Savior. That’s what the Lord wants for you, why Jesus died in your place on the Cross.
If you don’t have that certainty, please tap ANewStory.com and learn for yourself what it means to walk with Jesus. Please don’t wait. Eternity is a very, very long time to be wrong.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Thank you Ed! I loved todays message, though I have one disagreement concerning the day of judgement. Since the day that each of us was conceived in our mothers womb, our names were all written into the Book of Life. But there are two Books of Life, the book we are all added to when we were given life, & the Lamb’s Book of Life that we are added to when we were saved by grace, then our names were removed from the first Book of Life as they are then added into the Lamb’s Book of Life. At the Great White Throne Judgement, only those whose names are not written into the Lamb’s Book of Life, those who’s names haven’t been removed from the first Book of Life will be judged by Jesus. Two books of life, one is for judgment & the other is for those who are spared judgement. The true believers & followers of Christ Jesus, plus those whom God has decided is truly righteous and/or innocent, & deserving of His Son Jesus’ grace since the time of Adam & Eve to the end of the Great Tribulation, will all be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, & will not be judged on the day of judgement. Only those who are unworthy of being spared hell in the lake of fire will be found guilty & judged by Jesus. Look at Abraham, Daniel, King David, & many other saints of old that God said were righteous in His eyes throughout the Old Testament, will they be judged even though they were found to be righteous? Plus all those found to be righteous who were never mentioned in the Bible? I believe that God has provided a loophole for those that are found as righteous in His eyes, even though they never knew of Jesus because Jesus was not yet born when they were still living. Steve
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Beautifully said! Thanks for sharing! 🙏❤️😃
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