By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Can I say “I am not going to hell because of my sins but because I refuse to have a relationship with God.”?
That thought brought me to my keyboard to flesh out. Can I actually say that? Wow, what a complicated thought!
I found agreement in a quote from Creflo A. Dollar, a megachurch pastor in Georgia who said “Sin doesn’t cause you to lose your salvation. People don’t go to hell because of sinning, they go because they reject Jesus Christ!
I’m doing a Bible study on the Gospel of John and that study raised that question. John 1:29 declares ”The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Get that singular of “sin”, not sins. Sin is anything that misses the purity or righteousness of God. If Jesus removed the “sin” of the world, then did he remove our ability to miss the mark? To sin? Or did he take away the penalty for all sin?
Or did he take away the penalty for all sin only for those who believe him to be their Saviour? I believe scripture teaches that Jesus paid the penalty for all the sins of all men for all time. (That does not give us freedom to sin. God hates sin and has declared that the wages of sin is spiritual death.)
Romans 6:18 “Consequently, just as one trespass (Adam’s disobedience) resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act (Jesus’s death on a cross) resulted in justification and life for all people.”
I define “Justification” as a judicial act of God whereby we are granted complete absolution from the penalty of sin. What Christ did on that cross gave absolution/forgiveness to all men.
Hebrews 10:10-18 “And by that will (Jesus coming to earth to die), we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again, and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy….[Then God declared] “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.” “We have been made holy”. I define holy as spiritually perfect or pure, untainted by evil or sin, sinless. Is that “we” all men are only believers?
Looking at the end of the verse “once for all”, I think we can say for all people regardless of their relationship with Jesus. So, my thought seems acceptable: “I am not going to hell because of my sins but because I refuse to have a relationship with God.”
The penalty for my sins was paid by Christ. I won’t have to pay for them. However, I must accept the payment. It is a free gift that I can accept or turn down.
In order to be redeemed and have a relationship with God, we must accept this free gift as the opening of the relationship that brings us into union with Christ, our Savior. Where are you in relation to God’s forgiveness? Have you been ignoring Him?
Doing your own thing? Trying to be good enough to be judged worthy of going to heaven? Are you afraid that God will mess up your life? You won’t be able to do what you are used to doing?
Relax, God is not going to come storming into your life demanding change! God takes us as we are and over time changes our desires so much that we readily agree to the changes he wants us to make. He is not ever heavy-handed. Let me help you make a decision. Respond with this prayer “Father, I don’t want to be separated from you any longer. I want to come home. I accept your offer of forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ’s death made available to me. Please forgive me for walking away from you and for my disobedience. I promise to listen to you and to obey you as best I can. Thank you for making this forgiveness available to me.”
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.