We’ve all heard this
question and maybe even asked it ourselves.
I think it is a fair question, begging for a discussion. Last weekend pastor Dave took on this
question and I, for one, am glad he did.
As I sat under the teaching I was confronted with my own prejudices and
predispositions, and to the fact that I don’t have a corner on truth, God or life
after death.
With all my heart I believe
Jesus is the messiah of God. There
aren’t too many issues I am prepared to die for but this is one of those
issues. Eliza Hewitt articulated my
testimony years ago and I turn to it often.
She wrote,
My faith has found a resting place
Not in device or creed;
I trust the ever-living One—
His wounds for me shall plead…
I need no other argment,
I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.
Rooted in this Faith is the
fact that God is holy. Reginal Heber
said it so well in the words,
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God
Almighty…
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and
mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy…only thou art holy;
there is none beside thee,
perfect in power, in love and purity.
There are some
things the Bible tells us about God. For
instance, we know only God is holy. Only
God is perfect in power, in love and purity.
Only God knows what is in the human heart. Only God is qualified to
judge how people come to Him.
I have some
friends in the faith who seem always to be asking who’s in and who’s out
when it comes to eternal life and heaven. Not only do they ask the questions, they know
the answer. They know the answer so succinctly that if certain things are not
addressed in certain ways, then by this they know a person is out. I don’t think they would agree with me but in
there thinking God has been narrowed down to a certain way of being in the
world, and people need to know the secret key to coming to God in the
world.
I think God is
bigger than our belief about Him. I
believe Jesus is a Savior for the whole world and that He is not limited in how
he chooses to draw near people. His
grace is so lavished on the world that we would be stunned at how big the heart
of God is should we be able to measure it.
It is not ours to judge who’s in or who’s out; that’s God’s
business. Our business is to live a
redeemed life in the world that stands as a fragrant aroma of God -- salt,
light, truth, justice, love, acceptance, and forgiveness. I will unashamedly proclaim Jesus until the
day I die, but I will not limit God in any way, shape, or form. He doesn’t want anyone to perish, and He is
constantly present in the world seeking and searching for prodigals of a
thousand kinds.
The father in
Jesus’ story of the prodigal son is outrageous in his forgiveness of his
wayward son. The son comes back home not
to be a son anymore but to be a hired-hand on the family farm. He didn’t
understand the depth of love the father had for him. Upon arrival he encounters
a father who would have nothing to do with hiring a new employee. He didn’t need another hired hand; He wanted
his son back in the fold. The father
literally trips all over himself as he leaps off the front porch, lifts up the
skirts of his garment so he can run better, and races out to meet the son who
has come home.
Is God like
that? Could he be more willing to save
us than we are to be saved? Is God so
gracious that we don’t even have to “get it right” before he will leap off the
front porch and run to us with arms open wide and a heart filled with
forgiveness? Has God really established
a series of T’s to cross and I’s to dot before we can get in? Is God that narrow? Does the cross reveal a narrow God or a God
who will forgive even a thief at the moment of his death, a thief who never had
a chance to get it right, but had just a crucial moment to cry, “Help”?
I surely hope
and pray that God does not write people off too easily. He didn’t write me off and, Lord knows, He
could have. Charles Wesley wrote that
God “emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race.” That doesn’t sound like a narrow God to
me. That sounds like a God who will
fight against all the forces of hell itself to find that son and daughter of
Adam’s helpless race.
If it is true
that human beings look on outward things but that God looks on the heart, maybe
we ought not to be too quick to fulfill God’s part. Maybe we should trust God
to be “holy…merciful…mighty…perfect in
power, in love and purity.” One of the
things we know about Jesus is that each step along the way He got it right. He
can be trusted. We don’t have to fret
over who’s in and who’s out. Jesus’
words are never, “Get in or get out.”
His words are always, “Get in…Get in.”
We may or may not get our
speech down perfectly but we know that God will come running to us in mercy,
love, acceptance, and forgiveness, even if we didn’t get it right. Isn’t it a wonderful thing to know that we
don’t have to judge people? That’s God’s
assignment. Our assignment is to abide
in Jesus, to be His witnesses in the world, and to live as His ambassadors. He is our story. He loves everybody in our world and whosoever
will may come to Him. He sees perfectly
and we can rest in that awareness. We
don’t judge. We pray and live and
witness and share and invite, and then we let it all go to the God who “emptied
Himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race.”
No comments:
Post a Comment