Before you continue reading, please, please do me this one favor — Read the entire blog post. It is not too long; I promise it won’t be a waste of your time. Regardless of how you feel on the subject of Jesus, God, or the Gospel, please read the entire thing. Thank you.
— Ben, author of BenBRockN.wordpress.com
To you who are reading this, I do not know you, but I deeply care about you and love you as a person no matter what you have done in the past or continue to do in the future. I not only want you to understand how high the stakes are when it comes to this thing we call life, but I also want to know you as a person, and as a friend. This plea isn’t just “get out of the fire while you still can”, it is also an invitation to journey with you, whoever you are, to help you, to love you as a person, to be your friend – a real friend –, and to answer any questions you have about the Gospel or Jesus or God or whatever. I really do care about you, and that’s why I write this. I write this out of genuine love and care, and yet sadness, knowing that many won’t hear this message preached to them or to those that do hear it will ignore it. I weep for them because I know the end that they will face when they die. If I was apathetic towards you or hated you, I would not go to such lengths to help you! If no one has ever said this to you, at least genuinely, I care about you and I love you for who you are, a person made beautifully in God’s image! (Genesis 1:27).
Here is commentary on Philippians 2:10-11, the Bible verse that says:
“Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all”
(Philippians 2:10-11, Romans 14:11, & Isaiah 45:23)
What this means, is that Jesus is the only path that leads to God and His Kingdom, Heaven. The only way the other paths “lead to God” is that they lead to Him, but with negative judgment. God explained what He wants from us in His Word, the Bible. People disobey it every day but some ask for forgiveness and try to repent (turn from their sin), but many don’t. People utter careless words every day. They hurt people, even kill them; people do all kinds of things. God’s Word is out there for any of these people to read but most ignore it. God calls out to them through the conscience He has given them, but they ignore it. God calls out to them through people who speak about His word, but they ignore it. Others can quote facts and research, but no matter how convincing the evidence is, most people won’t listen to it — even though they will blindly trust and follow after other things in life. This goes on for years and years. Every single chance is ignored — but they don’t try seek after God or turn from sin, they openly defy Him at every conceivable turn for an entire lifetime. God judges everyone fairly, and the wages of our sin (which is everyone’s issue, including me) is physical and spiritual death apart from God. If it wasn’t for the fact that He sent His Son, Jesus, to save humankind from our sin, there would be no hope for humanity! But because of Jesus, God leans graciously on the side of humankind. Forgiveness and new life in Christ is easy, free, and available to all people regardless of race, gender, family, nationality, creed, life circumstances, or what you’ve done in the past, present, or future. But for most people, despite everything — the miracles, the history, the Gospel, the prophecy, the warnings — people still won’t listen to Him.
God states, as said in Ezekiel 18:32:
“”For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.””
Through the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:9, God repeats His desire for humanity to turn from sin and run back into His loving arms:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (NIV)
God doesn’t want to condemn anyone, He sent His Son Jesus to save us. All we have to do is wholeheartedly believe and trust in Christ and the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus’ saving Grace). But God is still a perfectly righteous, fair, and just judge. The wages/the penalty/the debt that sin stains our lives with is not only physical death on earth but also spiritual death — forever being cast out and away from God’s Kingdom (Heaven) because God is so Holy and full of Awe that our sin-stained soul could not bear it in His presence. After death, there are only two places a human soul can go — God’s Kingdom called Heaven, or the prison for Satan and His demons called Hell (Matthew 25:41). Hell was not created for humankind, God created us to be in His presence (Genesis 1 & 2), but if we decide here on earth that we don’t want God, we can’t be with Him when we die (2 Peter 2:4-9).
Therefore, after a person lives an entire lifetime of turning away from every conceivable call that is sent out for them, rejecting everything that was available to them, rejecting Jesus as their Savior from sin; God is left with the only other available choice, which is condemning them (rightly judging them for their sin). When you reject the only thing which will save you, you perish. That’s not God’s fault, it’s ours, the blood is on our own hands. It’s the responsibility of each person in the world to turn to Jesus, and the responsibility of every Christian in the world to speak the Truth of Christ’s Gospel into people’s lives, so that they might be saved (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:46-47, John 20:21).
If you don’t believe me, these are Jesus’ own words in John 3:16-19:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (NIV)
So I say to you again, as this may be the last time you hear these words of saving grace, what do you choose today? I care about you, a complete stranger, so much that I need you to understand this, what do you choose right now? This very second? Do you choose to ignore these words and continue to live your life however you want – destined to die forever apart from God and forever suffering in prison, or do you choose to live for God and repent* so that you can be saved from God’s Holy, Perfect, Good, and Just wrath on sin? *(Repentance = a daily confirmation to humbly turn from sinful actions and turn to God).
This is the most important decision in your life, in anyone’s life! You are not guaranteed tomorrow, you could die in your sleep tonight, or crossing the street, or even a few seconds after reading this post from a brain aneurysm or pulmonary embolism or a heart-attack, or a host of any other natural occurrences. No one is guaranteed this life or how long they have to live, that is why everyone needs to hear this Gospel message today, while it is still considered today! (James 4:14, Proverbs 27:1).
Please, please, heed these words, and if only for a second, think deeply about your life. Sin is anything that “misses the mark” of God’s Holy, Good, and Perfect nature. Not all things are sinful – don’t be confused -, but ask yourself these things:
- Have you ever lied, even if it was to help someone?
- Have you ever stolen, even if it was when you were a child?
- Have you ever hated someone in your heart?
- Have you ever cheated anyone out of something?
- Have you ever been unfaithful in a relationship?
- Have you passed a person in a broken-down car and decided not to help them?
- Have you passed up the homeless and not helped them?
- Have you ever saw someone being bullied or hurt, and chose to turn away or walk by?
(Deuteronomy 5:4-21, Matthew 5:21-48, Zechariah 7:10, Isaiah 1:16-17)
What I’m trying to get at is that everyone sins, no one is perfect like God, and that is exactly why we need God, because we can’t live up to His Perfect, Good, Holy standard of living (Romans 3:23, Mark 10:18, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:10-12). In the court of God’s Holiness and Goodness, no one can stand because everyone, everywhere has sinned against Him and others. And God is a Good and Just God, and because of that He cannot allow injustice to go unpunished, however great or small, and He must punish those who have sinned against Him and other people (Ecclesiastes 3:17, Colossians 3:25, Psalm 25:8-9, 2 Thessalonians 1:6). But God is also a Good, Good, Father and loves humanity so much that He created a way to save us from His Just wrath on sin and banishment from His Kingdom; He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for everyone’s sins, so that whoever believes in Jesus’ name will not perish by His wrath, but will be saved and join Him in His Kingdom called Heaven (Mark 10:18/Romans 8:15-16/Galatians 4:7, Romans 5:8, John 3:16-18, John 14:1-6).
Stranger… Friend… Please do not turn your head away from these words, please let them sink deep into your soul and touch your heart. God doesn’t want this for you, for you to die apart from Him; that’s the whole reason He pursued us so amazingly to save us! I genuinely hope that after reading this you pray (a heartfelt talk) to God and/or contact me below. I worry about you stranger, I will be praying for you and I hope you run to Jesus. Amen.
<Original work by BenBRockN. Feel free to reblog, ONLY if you give credit to the original author (me). Thanks!>