Is God fair?

The issue of hell raises questions of God’s justice. Is God fair? The question arises how eternal punishment is fair for someone who stole a nickel from their mom’s purse. This question is answered in two ways: First, it is not the nickel that is the problem it is the bent in a person to steal, to take something for themselves that belongs to another. Stealing is selfish as are all sins. It is the bent in us all that tries to make the self the center of the universe that is damnable. Unless this bent is repented of it will keep us away from God simply because He is the center of the universe. We need to deal not so much with sinning as with sin. If sin is at the center of our lives we will not want to go to heaven, we can’t be in control there, we cannot be the center, God is the center. The only way to enjoy heaven and to enjoy God is to let Him kill that bent in us so that we can be at peace with the truth, He is the Creator we are the creature. He is the center, it is all about Him, and we orbit around Him and find ourselves in Him. Heaven is the place for people who accept the truth, want the truth and willingly submit to the truth. Hell is the place for everyone who still wants to be the center. That is why stealing the nickel and mass murder can both send a person to hell, they are both imposing the self over others and God and are both a symptom of self-centeredness instead of God centeredness. The way to kill that self-centeredness is to repent, surrender our wills to His, invite His Lordship over our lives and receive His gifts of forgiveness of sin and new life in the Spirit that come by faith. The next ramble will deal with the second way to approach the question of God’s fairness.

Locked from the Inside

Eschatology is the study of the last things, and the ultimate last thing is heaven or hell. Clearly the doctrine of hell is the most troubling of all doctrines for Christian people, if it is not something is wrong with us. How can the God we have met as Father and Savior send people to hell, if He is good and powerful why not save them all? If it wasn’t for Jesus teaching on the subject I would probably be an universalist, for make no mistake about it, it is not Paul or the Old Testament writers who make the case for hell, it is our Lord Himself. As always the answer lies in the heart of God. God gave us choices, freedom, and our freedom is real. God’s ultimate value seems to be love and love is one of those choices. We choose to love people and we choose to love God. Romantic love, infatuation, simply seems to happen, it is not hard to fall in love. But real love is a choice we make. So to love God we must choose to love God, we must seek Him and find Him and follow Him. God has made this possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So far so good, but there is a problem and the problem is us. We don’t want to follow God, we don’t want the universe on His terms we want it on our terms. This is sin and it is no small problem. It is so deeply ingrained in us it stops us from seeking, loving and following God. It is only when God’s grace reaches us and woes us that we awake to the reality that our lives are in Him. At this point we have a choice, we can repent of our self centeredness and believe upon Jesus or we can insist upon our own will being done. That choice is the choice between heaven and hell. Hell is not the place people go for not having correct doctrine or for any particular sin, hell is the place people choose to go to keep God out of there lives. I think it was Calvin Miller who said, “The gates of hell are not locked on the outside to keep the damned in, they are locked from the inside to keep God out.”