Yesterday I asked my cousin what her dream was.
“To make it to heaven.” She replied.
“But Jesus died for pretty much more than that.” I told her. “You are already in heaven.”
Her face twisted.
You get to realise, straight away, that there’s a lack of knowledge here, and God’s people perish for that reason (Hosea 4:6)
Salvation is a whole package and getting to heaven is just one out of a hundred things in that package. After confessing Christ, the journey continues to understanding which kind of life He paid for. It doesn’t end at having received a free pass.
* * *
In high school when I joined 12 years ago, evangelists would come on missional trips.
A certain girl named Erica came this one time and told us how she was dragged under water by Ugandan musician Jose Chameleon. She saw hell, and all that went on there. She was personally used as an agent to lead more people astray, exposing other artists, and uttering more conspiracy-sounding information.
Ndejjeans present in 2009 & 2010 are my witnesses. I can’t quite tell however, whether it was propaganda. That’s not the purpose why I wrote today anyway.
Uncle Fred also came and showed us clips of Beyonce, Nickelodeon, Rihanna, Mary Mary, and how they were devil worshippers. Wait—even Mary Mary? Well, he claimed. Fellowship would be packed to the full. Thousands of students would flood to come witness who was who!
Fear held many in bondage. When the altar call was made, nine tenths of the students used to walk to the front to receive Christ. Yes even us who had received him the other week and the other week and the other other week. (Seriously, I used to go back up there until I was taught that it is done once)
That afternoon, children walked through the streets of school with penitance paints across their faces. Their lips were possessed by the Spirit of good words. For a few days, no vulgar communication loitered around the foul children. A sense & climate of holiness had swept through the school grounds.
Days later, children were back to square one. Though many confessed, they had been drawn to Christ in fear without a choice. The preachers were away. The stories that flashed condemnation upon them were as torches with expired batteries. Secular music boomed once again, and the Sunday fellowship that had filled up like a stadium a week ago had the usual 50-100 committed kids.
When Peter preached in the book of Acts and 3000 were saved, I do not know if there was any detail of burning sulfur. Yes, burning sulfur truly exists, but when men come to Christ by way of fear, they’ll stay their walk by way of condemnation. When he preached, joy drew men to Christ;
Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added [to them.]
Notice the adverb ‘gladly’. What sparked off the gladness? I deem it must be a welling of eagerness to see … what good happens after having heard the good news of the gospel.
My cousin still fears that she won’t make it to heaven even if she received Christ. She believes she’s supposed to confess her sins repetitively, for she may never know the day she’d die.
But there’s a wide flaw in that living. Firstly, like God said, His people indeed perish due to the lack of knowledge. If someone doesn’t KNOW that they are the very righteousness of God by faith (2 Cor 5:21), they’ll still be enslaved by the thoughts of hell.
What am I trying to say? I believe it’s preaching God’s goodness, that leads men to repentance (Rom 2:4). Telling men that God isn’t angry at them whether they adulterated, aborted, murdered, and sinned sounds good enough.
Obviously we’ve been told that if they can’t get to heaven any other way, then we have to scare them into it. But many after being scared into it, cross the pearly gates and sit right there. It is like swinging through a door and stopping at the threshold when invited to visit.
The scripture says God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whosoever shall believe in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16), but what is eternal life?
John 17:3 says “This is eternal life, that you may KNOW the only true God, and Jesus Christ…” What many of us have done is enabling men NOT TO PERISH, but we haven’t helped them have ETERNAL LIFE. Why? They do not KNOW the only true God & Jesus Christ.
This is the second reason as to why I write today.
Men still shiver at God’s judgement. The consequences and repercussions of failure to keep the law still haunt them. They don’t know that it was to show them they couldn’t attain the holiness standard by their works but by faith …
Romans 3:28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
… and they do not know that Jesus fulfilled the law, meaning if He is on the inside of you, you fulfilled it too and are now operating in the two He left us, which are loving the Lord God with all our minds, with all our souls and strength, and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Regardless, I am sure we’ve all at some point not obeyed these, but He still calls us His own.
I know I’ll get backlashes from this, but your deliverance matters more here. I asked my cousin if Abraham was in heaven. She said she thought so. Then I told her how Abraham killed men too, and disobeyed God even when He had said He’d give him a child through Sarah.
My cousin said he repented, (the idea of repenting here is the confessing by mouth that he was sorry and wouldn’t do it again, like how we humans like promising God we won’t and that He can strike us with lightning if we do it again) but I asked her to open the scriptures and show me where He actually did this.
I reminded her of how the law (the ten commandments) hadn’t come by then, as they make their appearance in Exodus. Jacob lied and stole, but we don’t see Him ‘repenting’ (confessing to say sorry)… Obviously men have been taught the wrong definition of repentance, and they haven’t been taught the grace and the love of God. Because think about it, what good is saying sorry to a person who knows all the bad you’ll ever do, and He still chooses to trust, love and use you.
The earlier patriarchs did evil things in the Lord’s sight like we all do. But when we ask congregations if those men are in heaven, they all affirm. This takes us back to John 17:3, the only how to have eternal life is to KNOW the one true God and Jesus Christ…
Notice God was still in three persons back then, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Notice how the patriarchs KNEW Him (as ONE, even if not in 3 persons). Maybe their knowledge of the trinity wasn’t of high acuity back then, but at least we all can agree that they knew HIM!
To know God, Encounters and Experiences with Him have to come into play. These draw men deeper to Him. Abraham, God appeared to and asked Him to go to a land He’d show Him. Moses saw a burning bush that never got burnt. David noticed that hiding His word in his heart would keep him from sinning.
Jonah tried to escape Him, but instead of destroying him, God kept him alive in a fish’s belly. Paul killed Christians, but God still visited him, and chose to use him. Personally that would make my heart melt, if the God who I despised forgave me and did business with me. This is the aspect of God’s goodness leading men to repentance (turning away from wickedness and changing direction to walk an entirely different path)
Obviously, some earlier prophets warned men to repent or the wrath of God would come down on them. But God too noticed that that wouldn’t keep men in love with Him. They would only constantly cower in His presence and flee in a second. Yet, He needed relationship too.
If you notice, ‘to KNOW’ someone is to come into relationship with … No wonder it is said Adam KNEW Eve. It’s another synonym for being intimate. And like many married people, I don’t deem fear to exist between those who said ‘I do’ to one another…
The book of Isaiah begins with God calling His people to come reason with Him. Along the way, wrath is promised, but then He falls in love again. The threats come up but remember what I said earlier, He noticed that fear will keep them away. He ends the final chapters of Isaiah promising good & glory to His people, and I hope that those who heard those good words, repented.
What are our learning points in all of this?
• For us to preach more of the gospel of His love, and not of the fires (unless occasion needs), as fear won’t do
• To KNOW God in all His dimensions, through His Word, (what He did for us and our position now) for this is eternal life
• To long for fresh encounters & multiple experiences in Him
• To have faith. Faith to believe that He has cast our sins as far as the east is from the west, and that the void between us and Him no longer exists
•
Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Psalms 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
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