Dear
matthew241006:
Suppose I have been studying several different religions and believe that there is a God, a creator.
Suppose I decide that I cannot accept, or believe, what the Bible says. In other words, suppose I reject Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Suppose instead I follow some other religion.
From a Chrsitian perspective, do you think I would go to Hell?
Short answer: yes.
For a "behind-the-short answer" explanation, continue reading the following which is in a simple and easy-to-follow format:
The problem:
You may think that you are a pretty good person, and I have no doubt that you are. But are you good enough to get into heaven?
To see if you are, can I ask you a few questions?
- Have you ever lied?
- Have you ever committed adultery? Now, before you answer that question, Jesus said that if you even look at a woman (or man) with lust then you have committed adultery with her (or him) in your heart.
- Have you ever committed murder? Jesus also said that if you are angry or hateful with someone that you have committed murder in your heart against that person.
Personally, it is certainly clear that I've sinned thousands of times and stand guilty of breaking these three commandments. According to Jesus, I've committed adultery countless times among with murder.
- Added onto this, have you used the LORD's name in vain?
I know that I have many times throughout my life. These are only a few of the Ten Commandments...
The Bible says that the soul that sins will surely die and that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Now, wages are something that you are paid for work rendered; in other words, you earn your wages. Because we have all repeatedly sinned, we have earned the penalty of death, which is eternal torment and punishment in a place called hell.
However, God has been good and faithful and has given us a way to escape the penalty of our sin that we rightly deserve.
The Solution:
Jesus came to the Earth as God in human flesh with a clear objective in mind: to bridge that gap between us and God that our sins caused.
You see, when the Israelites of the Old Testament sinned, they would have the high priest go into the Temple and offer an animal sacrifice to God to atone for their sins. In a symbolic sense, this was a way of putting one's sins on the animal, which stood in the place of the guilty person. The Bible teaches that "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). The sacrificial rituals carried out by the Israelites in the Old Testament foreshadowed what Jesus would do when He came to this Earth. After living a perfect and sinless life, He took the sin of the world upon Himself when He hung on the cross and had His blood shed for our sake so many years ago.
One interesting thing is that it is often said that you can tell the depth of a well by how much rope is lowered. When we look at "how much rope was lowered" from heaven, we realize just how grave our situation really was such that God in human flesh came down and was murdered in cold blood on a Roman cross for the very people who deserved His wrath.
The Consequences:
Thus, if you reject Jesus' sacrifice, then you are still holding onto your sins rather than symbolically handing them over to Jesus who has His blood shed as a means of atonement for your sins and God, being just and holy, must punish your sins according to His justice, which He has already said that the wages of sin is death.
You are not good enough to enter heaven on your own - neither am I. It is because of Jesus and the price He paid to atone our sins that we can come to God with the penalty for our sins already paid and go to heaven when we die. He's given you a way out through the love that He showed on the cross such that His Son, Jesus who was innocent became guilty for your sake. It's up to you whether or not you want to take God up on this offer.
Acknowledgements:
Some information came from the section "How You Can Know God" from Pastor Greg Laurie's introduction to the
New Believer's Bible New Testament: First Steps For New Christians, p. A3.
I pray that God may bless you, my friend.
