This passage is a hard one. It goes for the gut with the teaching that not everyone will make it to heaven. While I believe this, I think the difficult thing to understand/figure out is how this is decided. Does God choose some and not others? Do we choose? How is God merciful and still allows people to go to hell? Is there hell? Is there heaven? Are they real places or mere concepts? I don't really know, but I believe there is a real, physical heaven, and that hell is being away from God. And I believe that humans choose to reject God, that God gave us free will and with that we can choose to hear His voice and follow Him, or we can live for ourselves and lean on our own understanding. But these things can't really be understood fully by our small human brains and with our human perceptions, so I truly believe the important thing is to rely on what we know - that God is Good and God is Love and God is Grace.
But that's just me...
Questions&Answers:
-It's clear there are some who thought they were in [heaven] but ended up being out [of heaven]. What do you think happened?
I told you this was a hard day!
Hmmmm. I think that many think they're "in" because they follow the rituals, because they live Christianity as a religion - rules and regulations - rather than a lifestyle - repentance, grace, love, and serving. I think many pretend to live lives for Christ, but in reality they're just doing the bare minimum to "guarantee heaven" and be as comfortable as they want. To live the American Dream and give money to missionaries so they've "done something for Christ" but don't have to go and sacrifice their lives themselves. I think people go to church and take communion and say, "I believe in Jesus," expecting that to be the gospel. And that's part of it - fellowship, taking part in Christ's sacrifice, believing His love and gift to us - but that's not all. Loving Jesus means living for Jesus, it means giving up everything and following Him. It's a relationship, not a religion. Religion doesn't save us, the blood of Jesus Christ washing away our sins does, and our response to that sacrifice does as well.
-How does your heart respond to this teaching of Jesus?
It's hard to hear. It's hard because I have so many friends and family who don't know Jesus, who refuse to see the love poured out for them, who won't stop making excuses and living selfishly. It's hard because I want them all to know Jesus, and I want them all to go to heaven. I don't want them to spend eternity alone and suffering and miserable, away from the most beautiful, joyful, perfect love they could ever imagine. It's hard to hear. But it's also inspiring. It reminds me why I'm no this earth - to share Jesus' love with others, to tell them, so they can live for Him too.
-Salvation is by grace alone and received by faith. There's nothing you can do to earn it. You simply receive it as a free gift. When do you think this happened in your life? When did you accept this gift of salvation?
When one day, after spending a period of time convinced God cared nothing for me because "my life sucked" (by teenage-girl standards), I was at church singing "Friend of God," desperately craving unconditional love, and suddenly realized that someone did love me that much, that Jesus loved me that much, even though I am nothing. And it's obviously far more complex than that, but that's a nutshell of the moment without the events leading up to or aftermath. But suffice to say, it's been an epic adventure ever since. Hard, many struggles, so much learning and growing, and so utterly worth it and amazing.
-Why do you think these skeptics were hesitant to place their faith in Jesus?
Because they wanted backup plans, they wanted a "Plan B." They weren't willing to place everything on Jesus because that meant relinquishing control, and we never want to give up control of our lives. It's easy to climb the mountain, as long as we have ropes holding us up, or go skydiving...in an indoor simulator. It's easy to give God the 5-year-plan while keeping the masterplan safely in our back pockets. Not to mention, Jesus promises it will be really stinkin hard to live for Him. He promises trials, hardships, pain. He promises we'll be hated, looked down on, scoffed and scorned. He promises it will be so worth it, He promises that these things are for our good and ultimately, His glory. But for some, that isn't enough, and placing full faith in God with the knowledge that when you give up your life to Him He could do anything with it, is scary, and for some, too scary.
-"I never knew you," is a scary statement. What's your heart's response to that? Why?
Utter terror, to be completely honest. That's my first, irrational thought. I know in my heart that I am redeemed, bought with a price, saved by grace, through faith, not by works so no man can boast. I truly, absolutely, utterly believe that. But as with my last blog post about trusting for provision, sometimes it is still scary in "real life." I hate disappointing people, I hate failing people, and my greatest fear (no matter how unrealistic it may be) is not spiders, snakes, or other creepy bugs, it's disappointing God. So my heart leaps with fear at the first thought of that, but then rationally dissects who Jesus is and how much He freely loves me, and I know that I won't hear that when I get to heaven, I know it.
-Jesus is the ultimate authority in heaven and is worthy of praise. In what ways do you see yourself as "first" or "last"? How might you ask God to help you have the right perspective in this area?
I'd like to say I think of myself as "last" all the time, but that would be a bit of a falsehood. My pride gets in the way. I'm pretty sure somewhere in the Bible it says pride is the root of all evil (correct me if I'm wrong), and that is so true in my life. So I'm praying to see myself as last, but too often I see myself as a bit closer to first. Jesus is definitely first, but I like to think I"m nearer to second than last wayyyy too often. Jesus is working on me, though :)
-What do we understand about Jesus here?
He's still good, He's still just, He's merciful, and loving. He's a good God all the time, even if we can't quite understand how that goodness manifests itself. When it comes to who will go to heaven and who won't, it's hard, but I know God is good, and therefore everything He does must be good.
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