Last week someone challenged me about what I wrote for this blog. Unless I misread his comment he seemed to suggest that because Christ died for all, we all had the same destiny – of heaven. The way I read it, that’s not what the bible, which is my authority, says.
The trouble comes often because we see things differently to the way God sees Isaiah 55:8-9. We tend to categorize people as good or bad. We tend to see sins as major, as in murder and violent crimes or minor, as in telling lies, cheating on income tax, etc. Adultery would have also been included in that major list but these days the world tends to view as less serious than it once did.
Recently I saw a story about a man called Stan Smith or Stan the Man as he was known. Stan had a reputation as being involved in also sorts of crime. Although he was not actually convicted of murder, many people who crossed him ended up dead. His attitude towards others was according to witnesses one of extreme cruelty and he was later convicted of drug trafficking.
When Smith’s son died of a drug overdose the dealer ended up dead a while later- he’d been run over several times and left to die.
I suspect most of us at this point would have called him a bad man – one God surely would reject. Then in 2003 Stan Smith started to read the bible. He started going to a church at Putney. He became involved in bible study groups, helped out feeding the underprivileged and became active in the church. It appears his life changed.
That God sees differently to the way we see is evident in that. Moses, David and Paul – all were murderers. Yet God was able to use them.
God doesn’t differentiate. To Him sin is sin and we all fall short of His standard, Romans 3:23. and the penalty for sin is death Romans 6:23 however Jesus took that penalty. If we accept Jesus paid the penalty for us and trust in Him then we can be made right with God. What a blessing that is.
Related blogs
Why We Don’t Need Signs and Wonders
When You’re Having Trouble Coping
The Bible is a Book of Contrasts