My heart breaks

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a lady in the park. She claimed to have a Christian background, though was surprised to be caught by the law and her exposed sin. She admitted her guilt before God, and that the punishment for sin is death. She also said that though she did not deserve heaven knew she would be there because God “just forgives.”

I asked her what she meant by that.

She told me that she knew she would go to heaven because her mother was an atheist, and God would not send her mother to hell, so God forgives and lets everyone into heaven.

My heart breaks right there. Recently Steve Sanchez shared on his blog: “But what can you say to someone who realizes that a deceased loved one might already be in eternal torment? One lady ran up to me after a recent open air sermon, furious about what she had just heard and shouted at me, ‘You mean to tell me that my 11-year-old son is in Hell for stealing a piece of gum? That’s a bunch of $#%&*!$%!’ Then she stormed away.”

My heart just breaks. My heart breaks because the gospel has been tinkered with so much that God is refashioned, men are exalted (both are idolatry), sin is excused, righteousness is rationalized, the kingdom is trivialized, and Christ and His finished work by death and resurrection are dismissed.

My heart breaks because the wrong gospel message greases the slide into hell. People are offended when they are awakened to the paycheck for sin and alarmed to face the realization that loved ones may indeed be there because they believed the wrong gospel, if they believed anything at all. They are angry because (whether they realize it or not) their conscience tells them sin must be punished. They are angry because their conscience tells them that God’s remedy is right. They have a right to be angry when they know that “something is wrong” with the gospel. Sadly, I believe that way deep down, they are angry at themselves because of their own unbelief—they just won’t admit it.

The lady I talked to created for herself an idol because of a loved one. “With all due respect (I having lost relatives too, as we all do),” I replied, “would you please think about what you are saying?” I reminded her she agreed with scripture, that the soul that sins must die (Ezekiel 18:20, Romans 6:23) but the forgiveness of God is bound up in the payment of Jesus by His death on the cross and our repentance from sin.

She shook her head at me, “no.”

“So you mean to say,” I went on, “that God must empty hell and release every wicked and vile sinner He has sent there. How could someone who has denied God throughout life enjoy an eternity with Him?”

“God just forgives,” she said. And she left.

Friends, when we get the gospel right we should see boys and girls, moms and dads enter heaven and not experience the heartbreak of hell.

Remember these words by Milton Green:

"Thousands of sinners think of God having only one attribute, love! When you tell a stranger ‘God loves you’ his mind registers something like this, ‘Yes he loves me, he would never harm me so all is well with my soul.’ To say to a rebel ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life’ is a terrible misinforming.

The truth is that God is holy! Thus He is angry with the sinner at this moment. Wrath already hangs over the head of the guilty and will forever torment him unless he repents and trusts God. This plan is not so wonderful!

Sinners frequently think of God as flexible so that He will by no means punish the wonderful men. If you rush into four easy steps with a man that has a defective view of God, you will deceive him. You may lead him to pray after you, and you will be praying to the God of glorious holiness but when he repeats to God in his prayer he’s going to be praying to another god, he don’t know Him. Preaching several easy steps to heaven is not evangelism, preaching the whole counsel of God is! Paul was a missionary evangelist he could say to his ephesian elders I am free or I am pure from the blood of all men. Not because he had given each person four spiritual laws, the next verse substantiates this claim. ‘For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.’ You know why some people shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God? Because it upsets flesh!”