| Many people in the defense of the idea that God’s love
toward man is his primary motivation, will use as their main example the substitutionary
death of Jesus Christ. They will quote John3:16 that says, "God so loved the world
that he gave his only son that whoever believes would have eternal life." They will
say that God, who because of his love for us was willing to let his son die, could never
act in any way except unconditional love toward all of mankind. I suppose these can be
very comforting thoughts to some people. The problem with these ideas is that somehow they
overlook the thing that Christ saved us from on the cross. There is a phrase that I left
out of the afore mentioned quote, it is,"that they would not die, but have eternal
life." This is a significant part of that scripture because it alludes to the fact
that we as mankind were in a state of dying without Christ. Now many would say that this
is more evidence of God’s great love toward us that he saved us from this, and that
it is, but we must remember that the sentence of death that was upon us was put there by
God himself. In a very real sense God saved us from God through the death of Christ. If
God is this being full of unconditional love towards all of mankind, and his love for them
is his highest value, Then how is it that He would eternally punish any person that did
not believe in Jesus. Could it be that there is something God values more than mankind?
Could it be that the most important thing to him might be something other than man? I
have heard it said by a preacher, that God sends no one to hell, but men send themselves
to hell by not believing in Jesus. I guess this statement is suppose to mean that if you
go to hell it will be your fault not God’s. But let us face the truth here, when
someone dies, and their position before God is such that they are to be eternally
punished, it will be God who carries out this punishment, will it not? Which brings up
another interesting thought, if God unconditionally loves men during their life, and
everything he does revolves around them, why at the moment of their death are all chances
for their salvation over instantly? Are we to preach and teach that God loves every human
being so much that He is pleading with them to choose Jesus as their savior right up to
the moment of their death, and then if they did not He instantly becomes a God of eternal
wrath that will punish them horribly for all eternity? |