Did you ever ask yourself, why do sinners spend eternity in hell? Did you ever get an adequate answer? My dear readers, with all transparency, this is a subject that causes me great grief, about which I do not like to think. Tears inevitably result when a Christian doubts a loved one's salvation.
If you haven't answered this perplexing question, the answer may shock you. Contained within the correct answer to why sinners suffer forever are God's inconceivable love and man's unimaginable wretchedness.
Repentance is no longer preached as it was at Pentecost and subsequently in times of revival during church history because preachers do not want to make their listeners unhappy. We all like to feel good about ourselves; however, Jesus did not suffer the fires of hell in the sinner's place because we're not perfect or a little broken. He suffered in our place because we are wretched.
Let us contrast the Bible with Gandhi, a well-like historical figure. The Bible: "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He ...does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies. " (John 8 43-44) Gandhi: "Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his view of truth." Ok!
Repentance at Pentecost
Contrary to Gandhi, Jesus teaches us that people are self-deceived and couched in lies. The greatest need of all men is to see ourselves as God does. When conviction of sin is given to men by the grace of God, there is no need to ask a sinner to repent, explain perhaps, but the light of God is what does the work. Peter preached, and God worked, and the result became evident. "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter immediately knew what they needed to do. "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins... " (Acts 2:37, 38)
The Condition of All Mankind
"So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent..." (Acts 17:30). The obstacle to recognizing our need for salvation is a deficient understanding of our spiritual condition.
Salvation is God's call because all men are irreversibly lost and God is sovereign.
For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I show compassion." So then, it does not depend on the person who wants it nor the one who runs, but on God who has mercy." (Romans 9:15, 16) I think those words are pretty clear and no other passage can change their meaning correctly understood.
God's Grace and Not Our Goodness
There is no other way to understand Paul's teaching from this passage. "You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” On the contrary, who are you, you foolish person, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object for honorable use, and another for common use?" (Romans 9:19-21)
The Biblical message to lost people is that all are equally lost. We understand the universality of condemnation through sin from the term, "...from the same lump..."
An Eternal Condition Apart From Divine Intercession
It broke Paul's heart when he understood the perpetual condition of his brethren. Therefore, he quoted Isaiah's prophecy, "If the LORD of Hosts had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrah." (Romans 9:29) In other words, apart from God's divine, saving, grace apart from human effort, all would be lost.
The lost remain because they are incapable of saving themselves.
The ABILITY to CHOOSE Christ can not be found in the heart of the unredeemed.
If you want to hear more about the repentance that saves touch the link below.
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