Christ opened the door to a life much better than what we call “life” right now. Although it is ironic that He gave us this life by dying, that is the good news. He died that we “might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).
If we follow Jesus, our concern must be for the eternal welfare of people’s souls. Let’s not lose our focus. By God’s grace, let’s do what Jesus told His apostles: teach people how they can be with God when their broken lives in this world are done.
As Jeremiah said, the human heart is “deceitful above all things” (17:9). So when we find ourselves doing something for multiple reasons, do we have the honesty to ask, “Deep, deep down, what was the real reason why I did that?” Our motives matter!
The Incarnation was a necessary miracle. Out of all our problems, there is only one that required God to become flesh: the problem of sin. To fix that problem God had to die in our place, and to do that He had to become a man capable of being killed.
When we are emphasizing the graciousness of God’s forgiveness, we may lead people to think that salvation has nothing to do with our conduct. But, in fact, it has very much to do with our conduct, and I want to mention one way in which that is true.
If we don’t turn around, we’re going to spend eternity in a place where, without any hindrance from God, we’ll be completely “free to be ourselves.” And it will be our little “self” (now fully “realized” and “actualized”) that will make hell, hell.
Resurrection has two sides. For some, the resurrection will be one of “life,” but to others it will be one of “condemnation” (John 5:28,29). Human beings have eternal souls — souls that will spend eternity, if not with God, then away from Him.
Universalism is fueled not by biblical exegesis but by emotional preferences. Hell is simply incongruent with the way people want to feel about God. “The issue of the new universalism is no longer ‘God hath spoken’ but ‘Man hath reasoned’.”
Jesus was never more revolutionary than in His practice of love. If we take all that He did (and not just our favorite parts), even our most “advanced” ideas about love will be disrupted. It will be a disturbing, and truly liberating, experience.
Writing to Timothy, Paul left no doubt about the object of Jesus’ work: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). This echoes Jesus’ own words, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Christ opened the door to a life much better than what we call “life” right now. Although it is ironic that He gave us this life by dying, that is ...