FollowingJesus.me

I have been watching and listening. At best, I am surprised but at the core I am concerned. There appears to be a portion of the gospel that is being left out of the teaching of many churches. The surprise comes from the response I get from my Christian friends when I mention the observation that there are churches who don’t teach the part of the gospel dealing with judgment and hell. (Now that I have mentioned it, I may get the same response from you.) Strangely, they all (in individual conversations) had a very similar response, “Fear tactics don’t work.”

Wait. What? With each one, their response took me off guard. Who said anything about fear tactics? How is it that my question about a portion of Jesus’ teaching could lead to this response? (That is a much deeper question that I still need to process.)

I am not saying we need to make cardboard signs and yell from the pulpit (or the street corner), “You are all sinners and you are going to Hell!” I am not saying we need to be more manipulative and try to scare people into heaven. I understand some people have done those things, taken a portion of the gospel and used it to manipulate people. It happens. However, if we are to be true to the whole counsel of God (all of Scripture), our response CANNOT be to stop teaching those parts that have been taught badly. Just because someone uses the Scriptures about the reality of eternal punishment in a manipulative way DOES NOT mean we should just ignore those Scriptures.

Do we no longer think it’s possible to teach the whole gospel without being manipulative? Do we think it’s ok to completely ignore portions of Jesus’ teaching because people might not “take it the right way”?

Not only is it possible, I believe it is our obligation – the whole gospel, the whole Truth. Especially in the wake of the social and racial injustices we see, knowing God as a just God can provide hope. Knowing God as both just and loving can give both hope and a pathway to justice and healing in our society, if we are willing to take it.

Is the thought of eternal punishment scary? Yes! But that is why Jesus came to die for our sins. If we don’t understand God’s justice, His judgment, and Hell then we can’t truly understand the value of the death of Jesus in our place. His death loses its value if all we think is that Jesus died to make us better or to simply give us a better life. He died to forgive our sins, and we say those words, but it feels like we stopped talking about the real penalty for those sins. We stopped talking about the justice of God. Do you want justice? You will get it! God will NOT let sin go unpunished. He can’t. He is just, that is who He is. You’ve been done wrong? God will see that justice is done. God will justly see that the penalty for every sin, every wrongdoing, will be paid for, even yours (and mine). The penalty for sin is death, not just the end of this life, but eternal suffering in darkness and separation from God (the source of life).

The good news is that there is justice coming no matter how things look in the world around us. The “bad” news is that we will have to answer for our sins, too. The “best” news is this just God, who will make sure justice is served, is also a loving God. In His love, He did not deny His justice but decided to pay the penalty Himself. He came in the flesh, in the person of Jesus the Christ. He lived a sinless life and died (was crucified) to pay the penalty that was due. God paid the debt Himself so that He can offer forgiveness to you and me. If we will accept the payment made on our behalf, we no longer need to worry about spending eternity in suffering and separation. We now, through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, have the option of choosing Eternal Life. This is not about us becoming better versions of ourselves or about having a “better life”. This is about Eternal Life vs eternal death. “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

This is not a fear tactic.
This is GOOD NEWS!