Jesus said a lot of things during the course of his ministry. A lot of them we like. “Love thy neighbor.” We like that one. The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” We like that one, too. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” That's another good one.
But you know, Jesus said a lot of things that we don't like so much. He said a lot of things that make us uncomfortable. He said a lot of things that we'd really rather not deal with. So, today we're starting a new sermon series called, “Seriously, Jesus?” We're going to look at some of the hard things Jesus said. We're going to look at what they mean and how we can apply them in our faith and in our lives.
Now, I'm going to tell you at the start of this series, and I'll probably tell it to you again throughout the series, that I don't claim to have all the answers here. Some of these things we're going to look at are statements that Bible scholars have debated for centuries. We're not likely to come up with the answers in ten or fifteen minutes. Still, even if we don't come up with “the answer”, we need to deal with them. If I just ignore the parts of the Bible I don't like, I end up with the gospel according to Jeff. That's a gospel that's not going to do anyone, including me, much good.
To start out our sermon series, we're going to look at the statement of Jesus that “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And some may be thinking, “Wait a minute. We like that one. That says if we believe in Jesus we get to go to heaven. What's wrong with that?”
Well, I'm not saying anything's wrong with it. I believe it myself. One of the main parts of our faith is that salvation comes by God's grace and through our faith. That part is fine. It's the second sentence. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” What do we do with that?
Well, some would say we don't do anything with it. We just accept it. If you believe in Jesus you go to heaven. If you don't, well, then, you don't. That's just the way it works. We can like it, we can not like it, but that's just the way it is.
And maybe it is. But then we start thinking of situations, you know? Say there's an infant, a few days or a few weeks old, who passes away. An infant cannot “believe in Jesus”. An infant cannot believe in anything, really. So are we saying that because that infant did not believe in Jesus, he or she will not go to heaven?
Well, some people might say so. Most, though, are not very comfortable with that. We don't like the idea that a loving, caring God would not allow an innocent baby into heaven. And so, theologians developed the idea of prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is defined as a form of God's grace that comes before any decision that human beings make. It's a type of God's grace that is automatically in us. One of the things that means is that an infant has God's grace in her or him, and so in that sense can be said to “believe” in Jesus Christ even though the infant does not have the ability to actually make that decision.
Okay. That kind of makes sense to us. We like it. It's a lot more in line with our idea of who God is. By saying God's prevenient grace is in that infant, we can say that the infant is coming to the Father through Jesus, at least in a way.
But then we think of other situations. What about someone who grew up in a remote area of Africa and never even heard the name of Jesus? Is that person not allowed into heaven?
We're not very comfortable with that, either. It does not seem fair. After all, how can someone believe in Jesus if they never heard of him? It's not possible. Would a loving, caring God hold it against someone that they did not believe in Jesus when there was no chance that they could?
So, theologians expanded prevenient grace. And they said, well, if God's grace is in all of us, then even if we don't hear about Jesus, we should be just kind of able to look around and see the beauty of creation and figure out that there has to be a God behind it all. Even if we don't know the actual name of that God, prevenient grace let's us figure out that there is one. And so people who have not heard about Jesus are covered.
Okay. That's kind of makes sense, too. It kind of fits with what we talked about before. But then we think of more situations. What about someone who grew up in an Islamic county? They may have looked around and seen the beauty of creation and figured out there's a God behind it all, but instead of the Bible they read the Koran and call that god “Allah.” If they ever heard the name of Jesus, it was in a negative way. They don't believe in Jesus as their Savior, but what chance was there that they could?
Or, take someone who grows up in the inner city in the United States. Their neighborhood is infested with drugs. They don't know their dad. They may not even know their mom. It's all they can do to survive every day. The only time they ever hear the words “Jesus Christ” are as swear words. They don't look around and figure out that there's a God behind the beauty of creation because the creation they see does not look beautiful at all. Again, what chance was there that they could come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior?
When we look at all these situations—and there are lots of others we could think about and talk about—it just does not seem right to us that God would not allow all these people into heaven. It does not seem fair to us. And so we try to find ways around Jesus' words. We try to find ways to carve out exceptions. We try to make what Jesus said fit our definitions of what's fair and what's right.
That's not automatically wrong. If we're going to believe in a loving, caring God, then there needs to be some way in which God makes sense to us. If God is not fair, if God does not make sense, then God is simply arbitrary. God exercises raw power just because God can, and we have no choice but to sit here and take it. We might have to respect a God like that, and we might have to obey a God like that, but we could never love a God like that.
On the other hand, we also need to remember that God is not obligated to follow our definitions of fairness and righteousness. God has a better idea about what those things are than we do. It's not enough to say, “I think that's not fair, so therefore that must not be what God does.” What we think is fair and what God thinks is fair can be two different things. And of course, we need to accept that God's opinions are better than ours.
This is why I say this is one of the hard sayings of Jesus. On the one hand, if we say “If you believe in Jesus you go to heaven and if you don't, you don't”, it leads to a lot of situations that don't seem very fair to us. On the other hand, if we start looking for ways around what Jesus said, if we start carving out exceptions, if we start trying to make God fit our definition of fairness, where does that end? It's a slippery slope that eventually leads to “everyone goes to heaven no matter what they believe”, which does not seem like a very Biblical concept at all.
So where are we? What do we do with this statement? What do we believe?
Well, I told you I don't have all the answers. If you disagree with some of the things I've said here this morning, that's okay. You may be right. I mean, I know I'm the pastor and all, but there are a lot of things about the way God works that I don't know. And there always will be.
So, instead of speculating about the stuff I don't know, I'm going to tell you some things I do know. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior, my Savior and your Savior. I know that Jesus Christ provides our way to heaven. I know that by God's grace, and through our faith in Jesus, we will be able, when our time comes, to go to heaven and be with the Lord.
I don't know if there are exceptions. Frankly, I'd like to think there are. When you read the descriptions of hell in the Bible, it's hard to think of anyone, even the most despicable person, having to spend eternity there. I'd like to think that God does make allowances for circumstances and situations. But just because I'd like to think that does not necessarily mean that's the way it is.
What I know is that Jesus told us one way that we do get to heaven. I know this is one way that
works. And so, if I don't want to think of people spending eternity in hell, then I need to do everything I can to get everyone I can to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. And so do you.
The issue may or may not be complicated, but our response should be pretty simple. It's to do what Jesus told us to do: go and make disciples. If we do that, then we don't have to worry about whether there are exceptions to Jesus' statement or not.
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