God’s purpose is not mainly to save us from hell but to restore in us His Divine image and make us fit for heaven.
God’s love can keep no one out of hell. Without holiness (Hebrews 12:14) no one will ever see the Lord. To say that God forgives our sin because He loves us is one step away from the monstrous lie of universal salvation – which does away with the Cross, tramples underfoot the precious Blood of Jesus Christ and ignores the tremendous tragedy of God. Be holy (Leviticus 11:44) for I am holy. Be holy (1 Peter 1:16) for I am holy. That command could fill me with despair. How could I possibly become holy and become (2 Corinthians 5:21) the righteousness of God? Of course, God’s love is involved, but JUSTICE makes LOVE helpless to operate on its own. God so loved (John 3:16) but He did not pronounce everyone saved and automatically holy and righteous. God so loved that He gave and that’s where the enormous cost comes. Can we begin to see that’s where the enormous cost comes. Can we begin to see the unspeakable cost of the transfer - - He became what we were so that we could become what He is. How? It should be obvious that God could not simply forgive us and remain just, holy and true to His own nature.
The muscle of Divine grace is that God forgave sin and it is the Death of Jesus Christ alone that enables Him to do so and still remain true to Himself. If we are truly convicted of sin, we’ll never say that God forgives us because He loves us. The love of God demands nothing less than Calvary. God spelled out His love on the Cross and nowhere else. Now the impossible standard can be true in my life because God puts into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.
These thoughts made me think hard about what I say when I witness to an unsaved person. Do my words encourage easy believe-ism - - accept Christ and heaven guaranteed, reject Christ and hell guaranteed? This incomplete, unbalanced truth can only produce weak Christians if they are truly Christians at all. Maybe that’s why so many so-called Christians seem to know nothing about a godly lifestyle. God’s purpose is not mainly to save us from hell but to restore in us His Divine image and make us fit for heaven. God’s plan from the beginning (Genesis 1:26) will be fulfilled and will be completed (1 John 3:2) when we see Jesus.
Anything that obliterates the holiness of God by a false view of the love of God is the devil’s lie. When we are born again, we become (2 Corinthians 5:17) new creatures and everything about us and in us is new. New desires, new thoughts, new goals, new purposes, new habits, new attitudes, new perspectives begin to take hold. Not having a righteousness (Philippians 3:9) of our own but by the (Romans 5:17) gift of righteousness we grow in Christ and learn and (Romans 5:21) reign in life as (Romans 8:37) more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.
If you say you are saved because God loves you but there is no change in your life and lifestyle – everything is just as it always was - - I strongly urge you to make sure that you have actually received eternal life from God through the atoning death of Jesus. There is no other way. It is the Blood (Leviticus 17:11) that makes atonement for the soul. Without the shed Blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:22) there is no forgiveness for sin.
Oswald Chambers – “The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ, to put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us into His favour is through the Cross of Christ and in no other way. When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.”
I need to and long to and pray to go deeper in that priceless realization, as deep as is permissible. Of course, I know the facts: the rending of the Father’s heart, the unspeakable grief of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was ruthlessly ripped away from the loving embrace of the Holy Trinity. Because He had become utterly loathsome and repugnant to Holy God, the sum of everything God hated. God must pour His Divine fury and just wrath on Jesus. At Calvary sin and Holiness collided. Jesus was made (2 Corinthians 5:21) to be sin and Holiness had to crush sin without mercy – OR – you and I would have been forever without God and without hope.
If these are just historical facts and do not fuel my love, obedience and faith, there is something very wrong with my understanding of salvation. The more I’m aware of what it cost God to save me, the more I’ll value my salvation and co-operate with God’s purpose in saving me. My desire is to be held in that vice and constrained by the great, wonderful, intense love (Ephesians 2:4) with which God loved us.