Someone mentioned to me this week that the church today doesn’t talk a lot about judgment. You can hardly argue with that statement. It’s mostly true. Preachers talk about God’s love a lot, but hardly ever about his wrath. Can you blame them? Eternal punishment isn’t exactly a pew-filling topic. In the age of church growth strategies that emphasize marketing and felt needs and the like, hell is, at best, a back burner subject. Some just take it off the stove all together and hope people accept the good news of the Father’s love and the grace he offers through his Son Jesus without asking questions about all the fire and brimstone that’s in the Bible. It’s so much more pleasant for everyone if weeping and gnashing of teeth are never mentioned.
But I have a question: How is the news of the Father’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice good if there’s no “this is the bad stuff that happens to you if you refuse Jesus” message? Salvation isn’t a big deal if there’s not something from which you must be saved or die. Grace, without a credible threat of experiencing God’s wrath forever, isn’t amazing. It’s a yawner. Take it or leave it. There’s no compelling reason to seek for mercy if you’re not certain you’ll be condemned without it.
People who only hear messages of love and happiness have no reason to bother themselves with repentance or confession. They’re pretty sure they’re a shoe in for heaven. They’re nice enough people and they go to church most Sundays. They drop their loose change in the Salvation Army buckets at Christmas. They donate toward cancer research by buying those fashionable yellow bracelets.
Ask them about sin and they’re okay there too. They don’t sin very often and the sins they do commit aren’t the big ones. They just gossip a bit at the café or tell a white lie here and there or fudge on their taxes once every five years or ogle that gal at the office when she walks by. They haven’t killed anyone and they hardly ever swear.
Ask them about hell and they’ll tell you a “God of love” wouldn’t send them there. Press them a bit. Ask them why not and they’ll go back to the beginning. “Weren’t you listening?” they ask. “I’m a good person. I give to Jerry’s kids every Labor Day. I wear a pink ribbon every day to raise people’s awareness of breast cancer.”
A pastor who never lets on that there’s a judgment day coming or that God hates sin, cheats the people of his church out of the facts they desperately need to hear in order to make an informed decision about eternity. I do not want to be a pastor like that. I believe you are better served by a clear explanation of the whole truth – good and bad – than you are by a fuzzy bunch of mumbo jumbo that glosses over the seriousness of your sin and the very real wrath of God. I want you to know the great good news! God sent his son Jesus to save us! If you put your faith in Jesus, you will not be condemned! If you do not believe in him, you will be condemned forever because belief in him is the only way to be saved. There is no other name given to men by which they must be saved.
Do not be deceived! You cannot escape an eternity in hell except by trusting Jesus to save you. You are not and will not ever be good enough to merit an eternity in heaven on your own. Salvation from sin is a matter of grace given to repentant sinners who trust God rather than a prize given to adequate performers who pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. There is no such thing as an adequate performer. There are no spiritual bootstraps to pull yourself up by.
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