Sometimes, when the justice system fails and a criminal gets leniency or even acquittal, we say, "He or she will face justice in a higher court." And we are very right. When criminals, child molesters or other offenders manage to evade the law altogether (because laws tend to protect offenders and ignore victims), we say, "He or she will have to stand before God one day." We are correct. When many criminals, especially murders or child molesters are sentenced, we may says, "Let them rot in prison and then face justice in Hell." Again, correct. But guess what?
Each of us, too, will one day die and have to stand before the same Higher Court and before the same God Whom we declare that "those criminals" will have to face.
We who are Christians know that our own righteousness is "as filthy rages" to God and that we are all spiritually criminal and morally bankrupt in His sight. Yet we may fall into the old trap of believing that, somehow, though we know better, that we can somehow evade giving an account of ourselves because "it is all covered under the blood." Yet the New Testament makes it clear that all of us, Christians and non-Christians, will have to stand before God and give an account of our lives. Are you ready?
We must be ready to face God at all times, as life is so fragile. If you are without Christ, you have to give account of all you have done and you will be told that you must pay for your sins because you did not accept God's provision of pardon. If you had accepted His provision and His sacrifice in Christ on your account, then your sins would have been credited to Christ and Christ's righteousness and sacrifice would have been credited for you, and you would not have to bear the penalty for all your sins. But because of your rejection of Him, you will have to face the punishment for your sins. Forever and ever. The Bible, not I, says this. This is not my idea, but Someone Else's.
We who know Christ may believe that we are eternally secure in Him and that "all is covered by Calvary." I'm certainly NOT minimizing all that was wrought for us by Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. His perfect life and blood atonement DO indeed cover us fully; all our sins are transferred to His account and His righteousness is transferred to our account. Without this Great Exchange, there is no way that we could ever know God or go to Heaven. But in spite of this assurance, we still have to face God and give an account of how faithful we have been as Christians--with our money, our time, our talents, our minds, our bodies, and our lives. We will have to render an account of every word we have ever said, every deed we have done that we have long forgotten, and we will have to account for the good things that we have left undone. Does knowing these things make you tremble?
Believe me, I wish that these teachings of the Judgment of non-Christians and of Christians and the teaching of Hell, did not exist in the Bible. But they do and we ignore these teachings at our eternal risk. It is better to deal with this now than then. But guess what? In Christ, God paid it all, a horrible price, so we can go to Heaven and enjoy Him and others. Forever and ever. Heaven is everything that we have ever longed for. All those who are without Christ need to do, to enter there, is to call on Jesus to forgive them and deliver them from the power of sin; then they are empowered to live as God wants them to. And if you do this and died now, you would be at home in Heaven. In the case of us Christians, all we need to do is keep our eyes on Christ and, counting on His power, to strive to remain faithful to Him. Then we remain saved and will enjoy the full benefit of Heaven's wealth. Believe me, I know that it's so easy to get caught up in the affairs of this life that we forget the eternal. But we can't afford to think only of this life and not think about the world to come.
This is news that everyone can use, right?
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