It sometimes seems that people don't want to hear the good news. We preach the gospel, and they turn away. Often they're offended. Sometimes they're simply disgusted, or dismissive. Why should this be? When someone learns the good news of salvation, shouldn't they be overjoyed? Yet on average, it seems, people are not.
We are, perhaps, in a position similar to that of a man in possession of a marvelous hair tonic, which he is trying to give to a balding friend... who refuses to admit (even to himself) that he is losing his hair.
"Are you trying to tell me I'm bald?" he demands, outraged. "I have plenty of hair, I don't need that!"
Until someone accepts that there is a problem, we cannot expect them to be overjoyed by the solution. No one is pleased by the implication that they need help when they're convinced they can manage just fine without it. "Salvation?" they may say. "Why should I need to be saved? Are you trying to tell me I'm a bad person?"
You don't have to be a vile and disgusting excuse for a human being to deserve hell. It takes only a single sin to earn it.
All have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. No one is perfect, no one is absolutely pure, righteous, and innocent—and that is what it takes to make it to heaven on your own merits. A single sin disqualifies you, even one as small as a thought.
It may not seem possible that simply wanting to do something that goes against God's law counts against you, until you consider that the soul is not physical, and can be very much affected by non-physical things. You don't have to murder your brother to be damned: being angry with him is enough. You don't have to commit adultery to be damned: a lustful thought is enough. You must be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Of course this is impossible. It's a standard no son of man but one has ever met. Everyone falls short of the glory of God.
It's no insult to tell someone they're a sinner. Everyone is a sinner, even the best of us.
"Well, isn't that God's fault?" the non-Christian may ask. "He makes the rules, doesn't he? He set the bar too high! And now he's going to send me to hell for not being able to reach it, when he's the one who purposely put it too high for me to reach?"
This is an understandable misunderstanding. People often think 'omnipotent' means 'able to go against His own nature'. But it is undeniably a misunderstanding. God didn't set the bar—God is the bar! Would you have Him make Himself less good, so that you can stand in His presence as you are, impure and unclean? Would you have Him make Himself flawed and imperfect, so you can measure up? Even if anyone wanted such a thing, it's not possible. Praise the Lord: He is the very standard of good, and that standard will not fall. No, rather than lower Himself, He chooses to raise us to His glory!
In accordance with His own nature, and without becoming anything less than perfectly holy, He has provided a way for sinners to be saved. We, who deserve nothing but hell, who have earned it (each one of us) a thousand times over—we can be saved. We can be made holy.
Ah, now the good news is good!
No one wants the cure when they don't believe they have the illness. They may take it out of obligation, or a feeling of "what's the harm" or "better safe than sorry," but they won't dedicate themselves to it as they need to for it to be effective; they won't appreciate it for the miracle it is.
Without the bad news, the good news is not good. Without the sure knowledge of damnation, the priceless gift of salvation is seen as nothing more nor less than... an insult.
Ther... more
Ying-yang
Joanne Martin: I'm not sure what you're responding to, since all I said on that subject was that I don't currently believe that type of spir... more