He who is not loving knew not God, for God is love
First Epistle of John 4: 8, Concordant New Testament
Growing up, I was taught that God is all about the rewarding of the righteous and the condemnation of the wicked. That if I was a good believer I would be rewarded with my place in heaven. However, if I did not behave, certain banishment to the torture of hell awaited me. This is the black and white mentality of the Christian religion. The good must be rewarded and the wicked punished. The issue that I have with this teaching is that it leaves very little room for the true love nature of God to be expressed. Many Christians see God as little more than One who watches over them to ensure that we are doing things the right way. And why not? We all remember what happened to those in Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the great flood in the days of Noah. God simply will not tolerate those who behave badly. There is no room in His presence for those who do such things, or is there? Like most mainstream church teachings, the black and white, good versus evil mentality is dead wrong. Yet I'm not afraid to admit that I was once convinced that this was how God worked. Not only that, this was the lens by which I saw Him in my own life. Imagine living in fear of the impending condemnation of the Lord. I would guess that this is the life lived by many believers today. We walk gingerly through life, afraid of each and every mistake we might make. Knowing full well that another mistake might just bring about the condemnation of a God Who loved us enough to create us in His likeness {Genesis 1:27}. Indeed, this is part of the hypocrisy of the church. Yes, He loves me, when I do good. Yes, Jesus died for me, unless I misbehave today, which in some twisted way of thinking negates the sacrifice of Christ. Again, this IS NOT the love of the Father being displayed. Many don't even know the one true nature of God. That being love {First Epistle of John 4:8}. Everything which God will ever do is done to display His love. He can do nothing but that, for that is Who He has chosen to be.
Religion has actually convinced people that there is a invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time! But he loves you. He loves you, and he needs money. He always needs money. He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing and all-wise, somehow he just can't handle money
~George Carlin~
I've come to the conclusion that far too many believers have the belief that the sacrifice of Jesus was a punishment which did not fit the crime. The crime being so great that the blood of Jesus could never have covered it entirely. Therefore, they take it upon themselves to seek the Lords forgiveness for that crime on a day to day basis. I have a good friend who has this very mindset. I have talked with many so called Christians who profess to know of the sacrifice of Jesus, but seem to think that their sin was somehow not covered by His death on the cross. The apostle Paul has written that Christ Jesus has died "Once for all time" {Paul to the Romans 6:10}. Did the punishment given out upon the innocence of Jesus fit the crime which He was punished for? Make no mistake, WE were the ones who needed to die on that cross, not Jesus. Jesus was the innocent sacrifice given willingly for us {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}. THIS is the love nature of the Father being expressed for us. We did the crime, Jesus did the time. What better way to deny the sacrifice of Christ than to profess that He somehow missed a sin or two. That His punishment did not fit our crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. For as Jesus died to sin once for all time, He died for our sins of the past, present AND future. This is the truth which the church will not tell you.
~Scott~
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