There is absolutely no hope for any of us without Jesus. The gospel tells us that there is one true, holy, righteous, perfect, just God of the universe, who has eternally existed in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He created the world and everything in it, and out of all His creation He created man to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. But man rebelled against his created design. Man believed the lie of God’s enemy, Satan, and chose to glorify himself and seek to enjoy himself forever. Ever since that first act of disobedience sin, disease, disaster, hate, death, and so much more evil has entered into the world; and now all of us naturally rebel against God and seek to be our own gods instead of living in glad submission to the one true God.
But God! Because of the great love in which He loved us, even when we were at our worst, complete and total sinners to our core, sent His only Son Jesus to make things right. Because we have offended an infinitely holy God with our sin, our sin is an infinite offense, and thereby deserving of an infinite punishment. And that is exactly what God has told us is in store for every sinner. Every sinner who has not been covered in His grace will spend an eternity having the just wrath (God’s righteous anger) of God poured on them in a place called hell. But this is why Jesus came.
Jesus came to earth as a man, born of a virgin, and lived a completely sinless life. Jesus did everything to the glory of God. He fulfilled our created purpose by glorifying God and enjoying Him in everything He thought, said, and did. He truly lived the perfect life. And because He did this as a man it made Him the perfect sacrifice for sin. You see God told us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And because this is true every sinner, all of us, are naturally dead to God spiritually, will die physically, and outside of God’s grace will die for eternity in hell. But because Jesus was sinless He was now qualified to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
Since sin started in the world through one man (Adam), it could be ended through one man (Jesus), provided that man was sinless. But there is a catch; no mere man can satisfy the infinite righteous wrath of a holy God unless they are infinite themselves. This is why Jesus is the absolute only way to get to God. Jesus is the only person who has ever lived or will ever live who is 100% God and 100% man. By coming to earth as a man Jesus did not cease to be God. So when Jesus offers Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world He is the perfect candidate because He is the perfect sinless man (100% man) and He is God in the flesh (100% God). And only an infinite God can satisfy the infinite righteous wrath of God in three hours on the cross.
And that is exactly what Jesus did. What would take every sinner who has ever lived or will ever live an eternity in hell to pay for, Christ paid for in three hours on the cross. Jesus was beaten, mocked, spit upon, and crucified; and as bad as all that is, the truly horrific thing He experienced was the wrath of God that was poured out upon Him in our place for our sins, while He was on that cross. And praise God He did it! He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. He died on that cross and was put in a grave, but He did not stay dead. No! The grave could not hold Him. On the third day Jesus rose from the dead and prove Himself to be God in the flesh and in doing so He conquered sin, Satan, death, and satisfied the just wrath of God for all who would repent (turn) from their sins and believe in this good news.
But He didn’t stop there. After walking the earth for forty days, teaching His disciples about this good news, He ascended into heaven so that He could send His people the Holy Spirit to live within them, to guide them, to comfort them, and to empower them to live the Christian life; and now He is at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His people as the author and perfecter of their faith.
We are all sinful and deserving of the just wrath of God, but God is loving and merciful and sent His Son Jesus so that we could be made right with Him and reconciled to Him. The only way to get to God is by repenting and believing in the gospel, the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ, this good news that I’ve just unpacked. Our sinful minds think it sounds arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way to get to God, but after all that Jesus went through for us isn’t it more arrogant to say that there has to be another way, or that we can make our own way? Jesus literally went through hell so that we could be saved from the wrath that is to come. If there was another way Jesus would have done it, but there was no other way for lost sinners to be reconciled with an infinitely holy God. If Jesus isn’t the only way to God, God isn’t truly holy, because God would be sacrificing His holiness by overlooking sin. True holiness, true perfection, true righteousness, true justice cannot simply overlook sin and pretend it never happened; justice must be served. And praise God it has for all those who will repent and believe in the gospel; and for those who won’t, it will be in hell.
Now, after seeing that Jesus is the only way to get to God, I ask you, what about those who have never heard this good news? What about those who know nothing of this Jesus? How can they repent and believe in something and Someone they know nothing about? The answer: they can’t. This doesn’t change the fact that they are guilty and deserving of the just wrath of God. It just points us to the hopelessness there is without Christ. For most of us this makes our hearts cry, “this isn’t right!” But technically, the right thing would be to simply send everyone to hell, but God in His loving kindness, mercy, and grace has chosen to save some, and the way in which He has chosen to save is by His people sharing the gospel with lost sinners so that they by the power of His Spirit can respond to the gospel in repentance and faith.
God’s Word says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:13-14). So there’s your answer. If we don’t think it is right for people to go to hell who have never heard the gospel, our response should be to take this gospel to the ends of the earth in hopes that no one would leave this life without first hearing the wonderful news of Jesus Christ. We must go to all nations with the gospel in hopes of making disciples. This is the calling that Jesus has put on His church (Matthew 28:18-20). This is what we should all give our lives to no matter what we have been called to do vocationally. We must get the gospel out!
In closing I ask that you take a few minutes to watch this video and join me in prayer. Pray for workers, for Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” And pray and ask God what He would have you do, where He would have you go, and who He would have you take the gospel to.
http://youtu.be/OE2OvcnsdrU
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