Should Christians Judge Or Not?

            How many times have we been shot down by someone saying, “Don’t judge…”? An article in Answers in Genesis elaborates on this point, “The claim that Christians are not to judge is often made when dealing with issues such as abortion, adultery, homosexual behavior, and same-sex marriage. When a Christian says, for example, that homosexual behavior is a sin and that same-sex marriage is wrong, he or she is often met with objections like the following:

· “Who are you to judge two people who love each other?”

· “Who do you think you are, telling someone who they can and cannot love? You’re a sinner, too!”

· “Someone’s private life is none of your business. Don’t judge them.”

            Some people will even quote Matthew 7:1, where Christ said during the Sermon on the Mount, “Judge not, that you be not judged.””¹ These days, the phrase, “don’t judge,” is so popular that it is used in many informal arguments [by the guilty party] as a means to shut down the accuser.

            So should we judge [our neighbor] or not?

            There are a few components to the process of judging:

                      (1) Being aware of the right and wrong.

                      (2) Declaring the verdict to the accuser &/or the accused or the prosecutor and the defense etc.

                      (3) Convicting the offender/sinner, and at times – in formal situations, declaring due punishment.

            Problems with judging often arise if the first step is awry. If we do not know what is right and wrong, we may accuse the innocent and acquit the guilty.  

            So a righteous judgment is always predicated on the judge’s impeccable knowledge of the right and the wrong. (A righteous judgment will either forgive the accused - depending on situations - or award the righteous punishment to the guilty.)

            All of us deliver judgments. Passing judgments is a part and parcel of our life. There is no life without judgments.

            Passing judgments is not limited to the judiciary or the religion. It happens in friendships, in business; in formal and informal situations. It happens between teachers and students, parents and children, doctors and patients; it happens in almost every situation involving two or more people.

            Those who say, “Don’t judge me” are, in fact, judging their accuser, for they think that they know more than the other and that the other person is wrong, whereas they are right. Saying “do not judge me” is practically the same as saying, “You do not have the knowledge/authority/jurisdiction/competence to judge me.”     

            Tolerance is also a form of judgment. Tolerance is always predicated on a judgment. To tolerate something is to acquit (release) the disputed behavior or person from any form of guilt.

            Does Christianity prohibit judgment? Those who strive to cease a Christian from judging will invoke Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (NIV) or Romans 14:10, “You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” (NIV).  

            Are Matthew 7:1 and Romans 14:10 absolute commands? They would be absolute if the context says so, and if the same Bible, in its other parts, does not mandate Christians to judge. However, if the same Bible advises Christians to judge, then Matthew 7:1 cannot be termed as an absolute mandate to prohibit Christians from judging.

            Consider these verses that mandate Christians to judge:

            “…but instead judge correctly” (John 7:24, NIV).

            “…The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not   subject to merely human judgments…” (1 Corinthians 2:15, NIV).

            So it’s sufficiently evident that the Bible does not prohibit Christians from judging. In fact, neither Matthew 7:1 nor Romans 14:10 or any other verse in the Bible is absolute in commanding Christians to not judge, “There are significant logical problems with the claim that believers should not make judgments. The first becomes evident when we read the context of Matthew 7:1…

            Here, Christ is warning believers against making judgments in a hypocritical or condemning manner. That type of judging is a characteristic often associated with the Pharisees during the ministry of Jesus. Many people who quote “judge not” from Matthew 7:1 fail to notice the command to judge in Matthew 7:5, when it says, “Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” The point Jesus emphasizes here is to judge yourself first before you make judgments about others. (Also, notice the discernment and judgment required in Matthew 7:15–16, 20.) In the broader context, Jesus is telling believers to be discerning when it comes to false teaching and false prophets because they “look” Christian, but their goal is to lead the flock astray (Matthew 7:15–20; Luke 6:43–45).”²

            These are the words of the late Christian theologian, Lewis Smedes, from an article in Christianity Today entitled Who Are We to Judge?:³

In three words, blunt and absolute, Jesus commanded us, "Do not judge" (Matt. 7:1). But did he really mean that we should never judge others? He goes on to suggest that it's not the act of judging but the attitude with which we do it that God is most concerned about—"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged" (7:2).

There are other Scriptures that either cloud or shed light on the issue. Paul told the Christians in Rome not to judge one another (Rom. 14:13) but taught the Corinthians that they were to judge sinful believers and leave people outside the church to God (1 Cor. 5:12-13). James said he who judges his brother speaks against the law (4:11) but also implied that our judgments of others must be done with mercy (2:12-13).

Common sense suggests that if no one ever judged other people, there would be no real human community. In a sinful world, no community can exist for long where nobody is ever held accountable: no teacher would grade a student's performance; no citizen would sit on a jury or call a failed leader to account. And, when you come to think of it, nobody would ever forgive anyone for wrongs he had done; we only forgive people for what we blame them, and we blame them only after we have judged them.

I would suggest that, in our day and age, we need more—not less—judgment…

            So how should Christians judge?

            Judge righteously and in humility, love, grace, and kindness, “The key is making righteous judgments so that we can point people to the gospel. God’s Word gives us a clear standard to abide by, and the Holy Spirit guides us in what is right, wrong, true, and false. In order to make judgments righteously, we should be striving to live righteously and allowing the Word of God to be our foundation in every area of our thinking…

            Those people who call for tolerance and quote “judge not” out of context are not using sound thinking. Their call for tolerance is impossible because as Christians, we are called to judge righteously, and judging between right and wrong is something we do every day—and it should be a part of biblical discernment in every believer’s thinking. But it is God’s Word that makes the judgment on morality and truth, not our own opinions or theories.

            What’s the purpose of judging error in a biblical manner? The church is to be built on the foundation of Christ and the authority of His Word (Ephesians 2:20)—and that means believers should examine their own lives regularly and also lovingly challenge Christian brothers and sisters who are in error or commit sin. To do this, believers must be bold for Christ, but they also have to be humble, loving, and kind.”⁴

            Also, as Lewis Smedes says, let us judge, knowing well that we will, one day, be judged with the same severity of our judgments and being aware that we, as sinners, are not morally superior to anyone else:⁵

…making judgments is the hard work of responsible and compassionate people… Jesus may have been moved to speak as he did by the haughty way the Pharisees had of judging people. In Matthew 5:20 through 7:6, Jesus warns his disciples against following the traditions and practices of the Pharisees, who judged others as if they themselves were beyond judgment. What's more, they judged people by the letter, not the spirit, of the law.

So, most likely, Jesus meant, "Do not judge at all if you judge others the way the Pharisees do. If you do judge people this way, you will be judged with the same severity." Jesus' intent comes out in his metaphor of motes and beams (Matt. 7:3-5). We all have beams in our eyes, so to speak; to judge people for the little motes stuck in their eyes while we have big beams in our own is devilish arrogance as well as folly.

Nobody with a beam in his eye can see things clearly. He is dangerously low on discernment. And, since we all have this distorted perspective, we need either to be very humble or else leave judging to God alone. We have a moral responsibility to judge the moral behavior of others—but only if we are humbly aware that we will sometimes be dead wrong and never totally right. We must remember that our ability to judge is limited and especially that we are sinful people who will ourselves, one day, come under judgment.         

Endnotes:

¹https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/does-the-bible-tell-christians-to-judge-not/

²Ibid.

³https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/october1/29.70.html

⁴https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/does-the-bible-tell-christians-to-judge-not/

⁵https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/october1/29.70.html

Websites last accessed on 27^th May 2018.

No Hell, Pope?

            Pope Francis has a penchant to be embroiled in controversies.

            In an interview published on March 28, 2018, Pope told his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari that there is no hell. He also claimed that the condemned souls just disappear, “In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that Hell does not exist and that condemned souls just "disappear." This is a denial of the 2,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of Hell and the eternal existence of the soul.

            The interview between Scalfari and the Pope was published March 28, 2018 in La Repubblica. The relevant section on Hell was translated by the highly respected web log, Rorate Caeli.”¹

            This, apparently, is the transcript of Pope Francis’ interview with Scalfari, “Scalfari says to the Pope, "Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me that our species will disappear in a certain moment and that God, still out of his creative force, will create new species. You have never spoken to me about the souls who died in sin and will go to hell to suffer it for eternity. You have however spoken to me of good souls, admitted to the contemplation of God. But what about bad souls? Where are they punished?"

            Pope Francis says, “They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls."”²

            Quite immediately, on March 29, 2018, the Vatican debunked this report, “In a statement released on Mar. 29, after Scalfari's report garnered worldwide attention, the Vatican said:

            "The Holy Father Francis recently received the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a private meeting on the occasion of Easter, without however giving him any interviews. What is reported by the author in today’s article [in La Repubblica] is the result of his reconstruction, in which the textual words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father."”³

            Whether the Pope believes in hell or not is not the matter at hand. Hell, if it exists, would not cease to exist just because Pope Francis does not believe in it.

            But hell should exist because God is a just and a loving God. Consider my thoughts from a previous blog entitled, ‘Hell In The Presence Of A Loving God:’⁴

We believe a loving God would not send HIS children, even under the pretext of unbelief, to eternal torment. How would a loving parent gift his child with prolonged suffering? Would the parent not do all within his means to prevent this horrendous occurrence? This is our painful dilemma. In other words, we question the credibility of God’s love with respect to hell.

True love respects and educates, but never enslaves. A parent who truly loves his child will educate him of good and evil. A parent will do “everything” within his power and will to stop the child from pursuing evil, but that “everything” excludes enslaving his child. If a child is bent on pursuing the path of evil, the parent will choose preventive actions, but will never imprison the child into solitary confinement. The circumstantially handicapped parent may opt to allow the child to have his way; this is the respect the parent shows to the disobedient child’s cognizant volition. A defeated and emotionally fatigued parent will allow the child to continue in willful disobedience. Nevertheless, the parents’ love for the child will never diminish even if the child willfully rebels to disobey.

The father of the prodigal son not only heeds to the property share request of the son, but he goes a step further by not preventing his son from departing to a distant country with his share of wealth (Luke 15:12-13). The son willfully disobeys the loving father, and departs. The loving father expectantly longs for his son’s return and when he does return, the father rushes to welcome the son even before he repents. This is father’s love. A parent’s love will never cease and always hope for the best, but at the same time, a parent’s love will respect the child’s conscious decision.

Was it not C.S Lewis who opined that there are two groups of people in this world of which one group would acknowledge and believe in Christ, bend their knees to HIM and say ‘Your will be done,’ and God would have this group living with HIM unto eternity (in heaven). To the other group who refuse to acknowledge and believe in Christ and bend their knees to God, HE will say ‘your will be done’ and grant them their wish to be away from HIM (in hell). God keeps those who desire to be with HIM, but respects and allows those who reject HIM to be away from HIM. This is true love – a love that provides all, but refuses to enslave. (Please remember the Bible’s proclamation that God has given mankind enough evidence to believe in HIM.)

Let’s travel back to the creation account in Genesis. God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of it (Genesis 2:9, 16-17). Even though it was a command, Adam and Eve were given the freedom to accept or reject God’s command. Thus God exhibited true love, and HE desires mankind to love HIM. True love can only exist in the conscious reality of freedom. Freedom to accept or reject the lover is intrinsic in true love. Therefore, God’s love for mankind warrants the presence of heaven and hell.

God’s justice can also be questioned with respect to hell. How can a just God eternally punish HIS children for the sin of unbelief committed during the specific period of time of their existence in this world? Isn’t the eternal punishment disproportionate to the sin committed in time? This is another painful predicament we struggle with.

Human life was designed to be with God unto eternity through mutual love. Sin separated man and God. God, in HIS foreknowledge, designed a way out of this predicament through the one time sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. HE has also done everything for mankind to believe in HIM, so mankind will be without excuse against God. When man refuses to believe in Christ and thereby rejects God, God simply allows man to be away from HIM unto eternity. In other words, the creational intent is an eternal fellowship with God or an eternal banishment from God. Mankind makes the choice, and God honors that choice. This is Justice. Therefore, God’s justice warrants heaven and hell.

            We could consider this theme from another perspective as well. Consider my thoughts from a previous blog entitled, ‘Why The Hell:’⁵

Instead of asking “why should there be a hell?” we could ask “what would happen if there is no hell?”

So if there is no hell, there would be…

No Punishment & No Justice

Hell is the perfect punishment for evil. Since evil exists, punishment should prevail. If there is no hell, there will be no perfect punishment for evil…

Sovereignty of Evil

Evil people prosper in this time and age (cf. Psalm 73: 3). If evil people prosper, the weak and innocent would suffer deeply…When evil rules, evil would be the superior moral. If there is no consequence for evil deeds i.e. if there is no hell, good cannot be the superior moral (good need not be stronger than evil). If evil rules over good, evil would be the sole standard for life. Hence evil will pulverize the good.   

Amoral World

…If evil is sovereign, this world would be amoral (evil would be the only superlative moral). Wouldn’t morality cease when the right-wrong moral distinction is erased?  

…Predicated on the fact that life is more valuable than materials, it might be of less significance to the victim and the society if a thief who robbed a pen was not convicted of his crime. But it is of a great significance if a murderer of a child remains unpunished for his crime.

The thief who habitually steals pens could progressively deteriorate into robbing millions. During this progressive deterioration, the thief could also become a killer. Thus the possibilities for the lesser evil to transform into greater evil are endless…If evil rules, violence would be rampant and peace would cease, for the world we live in would be amoral.

God’s Non-Existence

A world without hell could only be postulated under the condition that God does not exist i.e. an atheistic paradigm. It is very reasonable for evil to prosper and justice and peace to be non-existent in the atheistic worldview.

The atheistic paradigm would not (or cannot) offer any reasonable or logical answers to the problem of evil. Such is the moral bankruptcy of atheism.

Ask an atheist to explain the presence of evil. More often than not, they would quote Richard Dawkins in his work “River Out of Eden” and say “there is no such thing as evil.”…So an atheist who denies God’s existence will deny evil and will deny hell. He has no other option. So if there is no hell, there is no god.

Conclusion

If there is no hell, then:

1. Evil would be unpunished.

2. Evil would be sovereign (rule over good).

3. World would be amoral.

4. There should be no God (for hell is only plausible if God exists).

But this is the existential reality…We are not living in a world where evil is sovereign. We are living in a world where God is sovereign. Although Satan is the temporary ruler of this world, the sovereign God is in total control.

We know that God is in total control since our world is not amoral. There are punishments for evils. Evil does not rule over good. 

Good still rules over evil. This is precisely why a good number of people enjoy a rather peaceful existence. The presence of God entails peace.

God has temporarily allowed evil to reign. But HE has assured us that not a hair from our head will perish.

God is good. God does not tolerate evil.

If we repent of our sins, believe and remain in the Lord and Savior Christ, we will be saved. Those who do not believe in Christ remain evil, since their sins remain unforgiven because of their conscious rejection of Christ.

Such an evil person sins against an infinite God. Sins against an infinite God mandate an infinite punishment in the form of hell. Hell then is the eternal abode of all those who reject Christ.

In case you have not received Christ yet, please pray and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your God and savior. I pray that you repent of your sins and ask Christ to forgive you. The merciful and loving Lord will forgive you and you will be with God forever and ever. I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

Endnotes:

¹https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/pope-francis-there-no-hell?utm_source=sumome&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sumome_share

²Ibid.

³Ibid.

⁴http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2013/02/hell-in-presence-of-loving-god.html

⁵http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2016/02/why-hell.html

Websites last accessed on 6 April 2018.

Ungracious Christians

            Philip Yancey, in his classic “What's So Amazing About Grace?” describes ungraciousness as, “Ungrace does its work quietly and lethally, like a poisonous, undetectable gas. A father dies unforgiven. A mother who once carried a child in her own body does not speak to that child for half its life. The toxin steals on, from generation to generation.” Around us, ironclad in their pristine saintly attire, are ungracious Christians.

            A pastor requested prayer for an 80 year old pastor who was beaten up. Instead of sympathizing or offering his prayer support, a Christian responded by asking if the beaten up pastor was living a good Christian life or not.

            Isn’t it fascinating that we love to judge the spirituality of our fellow Christians? We are experts in ignoring the plank firmly lodged in our own eye while we rabidly bark at the speck in our brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5).

            How quickly do we forget that grace is the spirit of Christianity!

            If not for God’s grace, we would be doomed to eternal dungeon. Christ is the embodiment of grace and Christians are called to be Christlike – to be loving and gracious to each other.  

            If grace is at the heart of Christianity, why do Christians morph into ungracious beings to irrationally judge their fellow brother and sister? Who is responsible for this malady in Christendom?

            But unjust judgment and harsh condemnation is common in Christianity. The Bible amplifies this predicament. Even the Lord was not spared. Christ was condemned by the religious leaders.

            Philip Yancey, in “What's So Amazing About Grace?” captures this thought wonderfully, “Having spent time around "sinners" and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company. Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus could deal with them. In contrast, the saints put on airs, judged him, and sought to catch him in a moral trap. In the end it was the saints, not the sinners, who arrested Jesus.”

            The religious leaders condemned Christ because they assumed greater knowledge. They not only assumed greater knowledge, but they believed that their knowledge was inerrant and infallible. Those religious leaders were proud and egotistic.

            Spiritual pride is the cause for ungracious and judgmental attitude. The super-spiritual Christian basking in spiritual pride thinks more highly of himself than he ought to (cf. Romans 12:3). When sober judgment of oneself is eclipsed by spiritual pride, he condemns his neighbor at every given opportunity.

            Recently I had the privilege of hearing a friend tell me that she lives a perfect Christian life. I was shocked to hear this statement from an ostensibly spiritually mature woman, who is well respected in her church.

            Did she not read her Bible that says that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10) or that “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1: 8-10, NIV). These super-spiritual Christians think that they do not and cannot commit sin.  

            This super spiritual Christian forgets that it is because of God’s grace that he is able to live a righteous life. In this context, he forgets two very important aspects.

            First, his life is a gracious gift from God. Because God offers him life, he is able to live righteously.

            Second, this person is able to live a righteous life because God has placed a fence of protection around his life (cf. Job 1:10). If God had allowed Satan to inflict veridical damage upon this person’s life, this person, even if he had genuinely lived a righteous life, could have suffered under people around him. They could have suspected him of some offense or the other. They would have then showered inordinate malice upon him.

            So the so-called super spiritual Christian cannot be super-spiritual if not for God’s grace. Although he is a product of God’s grace, he remains ungracious to his brethren.

            Who is responsible for this malady?

            There is no dearth of sermons on living a Christian life. The church should not be blamed for emphasizing a holy lifestyle, for Christians cannot be hypocrites. But when we meagerly succeed at living a morally upright life, we, with all guns blazing, condemn sinful people.

            How often do you hear sermons on being gracious to your sinful neighbors? For every sermon about living a Christian life, there should be ten sermons about being a gracious Christian. This is the responsibility of the church.

            The church should take responsibility for the prevalent malady of spiritual pride.

            Being gracious is not to approve the sins of our neighbors. Grace does not encourage sins (cf. Romans: 1-2).

            But God loved us while we were unrepentant sinners (cf. Romans 5:8). So we should love our neighbors while they remain unrepentant.

            How can we share the love of Christ if we do not love our neighbors? Would our neighbors be receptive to a gospel message from people who disrespectfully condemn their sinful lifestyle?

            There is a huge disparity between disapproving a sinful lifestyle and disrespectfully condemning a sinful lifestyle. A sinful lifestyle can be lovingly disapproved.  Condemnation is usually accompanied by hatred towards the person committing the sin.

            If a friend lives a blatantly sinful life, we should continue our friendship with him. We should be kind to him and his family, encourage him in his other noble endeavors, visit, dine with him etc. Yet we should lovingly disapprove of his sinful lifestyle and try to gently talk him out of that sinful lifestyle.

            Christ did not crucify the woman who was caught in adultery. HE empathized with her and lovingly counseled her to not sin. Christ did not disassociate HIMSELF from sinners but HE entered their homes and fellowshipped with them.

            Condemnation raises its ugly hood when our friend commits a sin. We immediately break our friendship with him and vilify him in public and private. This is not an appropriate Christian practice.              

            Here is an intriguing factor while we criticize our fellow Christians, which is wonderfully revealed in the Bible.

            On one hand, Christians are capable of glorifying the blatantly sinning Christian. As a case in point, the Corinthian church was proud of their member who was sleeping with his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5: 1-2).

            On the other hand, Christians could condemn those who may outwardly appear as sinners but who are faithfully living a holy life, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” (Matthew 11: 18-19, NIV).

            If Christ the Lord and John the Baptist were victims to such condemnation, what prevents you and me from being condemned? Persecution is native to Christianity.  

            We will be condemned by our own family. Our dearest friends would flee from us when we are in difficult situations. When we stand for the Lord and HIS word, we will be condemned and persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). But let us continue to remain in the Lord, love and obey HIM despite the harsh condemnation from our fellow Christians.

            How do we remain gracious?            

            Step into the shoes of those who need grace. First, judge ourselves with a sober judgment. We are as much as a sinner as he is.

            Second, consider our neighbors at par with us or better than us. If we are no greater than him, we have no business to venomously judge him. Instead, love him just as God loves him and us.  

            We will be gracious if we are humble. The fast track to humility is to experience soul-wrenching pain. Unless we experience soul-wrenching pain, it is very difficult for us to remain humble.

            If a friend or an acquaintance asks you for prayer either pray or don’t pray. It is even acceptable if you do not pray, for God will care for HIS people. But please do not insult either the person asking for prayer or the person to be prayed for.  

Way to Heaven? Not by Works!

          Once we learn from the Bible that God’s grace is firmly imprinted in our salvation (new birth a.k.a born again experience), we could move over to see how we (believers in Christ) are judged. We are fundamentally examining both ends of our Christian life – our new birth and death (i.e. what happens after our death). Let me clarify that the judgment I am referring to is our post-death judgment.

            Judgment is a reality, for it is explicitly stated in the Bible. First, it is God who judges man (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:5, 14:10-12; 1 Corinthians 4:5). Second and more specifically, the second person of the blessed Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, will judge the living and the dead (Matt 25:31-46; Acts 10:42, 17:31). Third, the believer in Christ will be judged as it is mentioned in Romans 14:10-12 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 (these are letters Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome and Corinth). The unbelievers of the Lord Jesus will also be judged (Romans 2:5-11; Revelation 20:12). Finally, those who believe in Christ will be judged on the basis of their earthly deeds – whether good or bad (Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10).

            The Bible states that believers in Christ are created to do good works, which should be a natural outcome of their life in Christ (Cf. Ephesians 2:10, John 15 et al.). It is imperative to affirm that those who believe in Christ will not be eternally condemned (John 5:24; Romans 8:1) but will indeed live unto eternity. Believers in Christ are only saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus, and not by works they do in this world. The believer’s judgment will not relegate a believer in Christ to hell, but this judgment evaluates and bestows various degrees of rewards in heaven (Matthew 5:19, 46, 6:2-6, 16-18; Luke 6:22-23, 35, 12:42-48, 19:17,19; 1 Corinthians 3:8, 12-15, 13:3, 15:58; Hebrews 11:35; 2 John 8; Revelation 22:12).

            So, the believers are saved ONLY by grace, but are created to do good works, hence we conclude that doing good works bears no role in our salvation. Permit me to illustrate this now, and for the sake of illustration we will consider the first act of sinful nature – sexual immorality (Galatians 5:19, NIV).

            If a believer falls into temptation and unfortunately dies while in adultery, many Christians would tend to think he is hell-bound. This man did not even have an opportunity to repent, so that lends credence to this doctrine. However, I think differently! I do not think this person is hell-bound, but in fact he is heaven-bound. A believer’s unconfessed sins do not transport him to hell. If believers are saved by grace, then they are saved by grace. Period. Good deeds or bad deeds of a believer in Christ will not relegate him to hell. Please remember that when a person accepts the Lord Jesus as his God and Savior, he is clothed with the righteousness of Christ. He is forgiven of all his sins.

            Well, I hope another illustration will reinforce my point. Let us again consider sexual immorality. I share this illustration that I read sometime ago. Let us assume a believer living an adulterous life. Let us also assume that his church elders approach him and advise him to quit his adultery, repent, and live clean. This person refuses to listen to them and continues with his adulterous lifestyle. The church elders now approach him for the second time and warn him that he is hell-bound, if he refuses to repent of his sin (adultery) and live clean. Stop and think. According to the doctrine of the church elders, this believer will go to heaven if he stops his adulterous life. Now, where did the grace of God disappear? Are we not saved by grace? Isn't this doctrine promoting salvation by works – that if we live clean we go to heaven, else we go to hell?

            If only sinless people can go to heaven, then God alone would inhabit heaven. Please permit me to stretch the illustration further. The Lord said “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28, NIV). The Bible categorically states that even a lustful look is adultery, and anger equivalent to murder and deserving hellfire (Matthew 5:21-22)! How many of us are absolutely immune to sensuality and anger of various forms and sizes?

            Let us continue to travel within this thought. The second act of the sinful nature is “impurity.” What is impurity? One approach to understand impurity is to gain knowledge on purity. Purity lacks imperfection and even potency for imperfection. Impurity, on the other hand, is an embodiment of imperfection. The Bible teaches that God alone is pure and perfect. None of us are pure, for we are all sinners. If my work of good or bad deeds is going to determine my eternal status, then none will go to heaven, for we are all impure (sinners). In other words, no amount of good works will fetch a believer in Christ a ticket to heaven.

            We are created to do good works, and a believer in Christ will do good works. This is how Christians should live. The doctrine of our salvation (grace through faith) does not promote sin in our lives. Instead, the one saved by grace should realize his unworthiness to be in the presence of a Holy God, and live a life that pleases the Holy God, in utter gratitude, until his last breath. Anyone who teaches that grace of God is a license to sin will experience a severe judgment (Cf. Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2, NIV).

            It is God’s will that we live to believe and please our Triune God through our thoughts, words and deeds, so may we do just that. Amen.