A God of love would never send people to hell.
Everyone has their own truth and their own path to God.
My teacher told me God doesn’t exist.
I went to church when I was little so it’s all good. Or, I’m a member of the local church so it’s all good. I’m covered.
I’ve done too many bad things. God doesn’t want me.
I’m a good person. God will let me in.
I can take care of that some other time. I’m too busy right now.
I don’t feel like it.
All that Bible stuff is too hard. I’ll just wing it.
I went to church but someone there made me mad. I won’t go back.
I’d go to church but someone already there hurt me. I’ll never go somewhere where he/she is at.
They are just after my money. They don’t care about me.
We’ve all heard these excuses for why people reject Christianity. We’ve probably even said or thought some of them ourselves.
I’m not even going to offer a rebuttal to them. Instead, I’m going to skip the debate and go straight to the point. I’m going to focus on the heart of the issue. These are all excuses we use so we don’t have to face the truth. However, when the moment of truth comes, our excuses won’t matter one single bit.
I’m not going to sugar coat this or try to make it politically correct. I’m going to put it out there and leave the rest up to you.
You will stand before God at some point. He’s not going to consider your excuses and make allowances for them. God won’t say, “Yes, I know. The church was full of hypocrites so I understand why you didn’t go. Please, enter into eternity with Me.”
You’ll never hear, “Your teacher told you I don’t exist so it’s not really your fault that you rejected Me. We’ll blame your teacher instead. Heaven awaits you.”
God isn’t going to look at the calendar on your smartphone and reply, “Wow, you’re right. You were really busy with your career and your children’s activities and civic responsibilities and taking care of your home and still trying to fit in some fun stuff. I can see why you never took time to learn about Me. Sure, we can make an exception. I have a spot prepared for you in heaven with Me.”
Do you see where I’m going with this?
We throw out excuses for our rejection of God’s truth as if they’ll make a difference in our eternal outcome. We actually think God will consider those excuses as valid “Get out of jail free” cards in a cosmic, eternal Monopoly game.
I mean, after all, God is love and His is a message of grace, right?
This is God’s Love
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
God is a God of love. As Creator of the universe, He has the privilege of defining love. He defined it as a sacrifice made by one person for the benefit of another person. He played it out by sacrificing Himself to pay the penalty for our sin so we might receive the benefit of forgiveness and eternity in heaven.
This is God’s Grace
“Since by one man’s trespass [Adam], death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. … But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:17, 20-21).
God is a God of grace. Grace doesn’t make excuses and exceptions to get around the truth. That’s called lying and deception and they’re trademark signs of Satan, not God. God’s grace recognizes our sin for what it is without excuse. Instead, He forgives it completely and totally because of the blood sacrificed by Jesus.
A difference exists between excusing an offense and forgiving one. To excuse an offense means to pretend as if it wasn’t actually offensive or didn’t hurt you. To excuse an offense gives power to the offender. To forgive an offense means to recognize that the person’s action was wrong, it did hurt you, but you choose not to hold it against them. To forgive an offense gives the power to the one offended. The latter is God’s grace.
No one will hold your hand
When that moment comes and you stand before God, I won’t be there to hold your hand and offer false promises of security. Your excuses won’t be there still promising false justification. That moment will be between you and God alone; all that will matter is what you did with the message of love and grace offered by Jesus. Did you accept it or did you excuse it away?
Please click here to read a full explanation of what it means to accept Jesus’ gift of love, grace, and salvation. It’s eternally significant.
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