2 years ago
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By Simon Ifeanyi Ezeh
Anyone who goes to hell has himself to blame and there’s no grace anywhere. Jesus Christ never mentioned or at least implied grace as the concept that would get people to heaven in all his sermons. How you live on earth determines where you end up – Ezekiel 18 (whole chapter), Matt 25:31-46. If the words of Jesus Christ is your code of conduct in life, you end in heaven but if the society, your country, yourself, peers, family, science, religion, etc. or the devil determines how you live or your value system, you’d spent eternity without God, in hell. Consider the following highlights:
⦁ God forgives because he’s merciful. He didn’t acquire the capacity to forgive because Jesus Christ died and resurrected. Jesus Christ was never a sacrifice for sins, neither did God ever require sacrifice from anyone in order to forgive sin. Sacrifice was man’s blind invention to remedy sin but it was a waste of time because sin is a moral burden and a heart condition which is only solvable when or if the sinner repents, has a change of heart. Nobody repents on someone else’s behalf.
Below are a few scriptures warning us concerning the ungodliness of sacrifice.
Psa 50:7-13
Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
If God wouldn’t eat the flesh of animals nor drink their blood, is it the flesh of his son he would eat, and the blood of his son he would drink? Come on, people! Let’s think!
Psa 40:6-8
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Hos 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
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Mat 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance
What else does a man need to hear to believe that Jesus Christ didn’t die a sacrifice for sin? I have no idea! You may google my article on sacrifice for a more fulsome approach to the subject matter.
A new comer to my column would then ask, “Why did Jesus die and who killed him?” Jesus Christ himself answers that question in Matt 21:33-46 and it has nothing to do with sacrifice whatsoever.
Mat 21:33-46
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.
⦁ Man also forgives, just like God. This was revealed by Christ Jesus. Matt 9:2-8
⦁ Anyone who fails to forgive others will not be forgiven by God. Matt 6:14,15
⦁ A man has to repent, ask God for forgiveness and be forgiven by God.
⦁ So, if a sinner fails to repent and/or fails to forgive others, he won’t be forgiven by God and if he passes on that way, he spends eternity without God in hell.
⦁ We don’t fall down and die immediately we commit sin. Most times, we still continue walking about, living like any other person in spite of that wickedness we’ve just committed. That’s God’s mercy and it happens to all humanity. Also, everyone has had a near death experience, severally. Why? Jesus Christ says that no one comes to him unless the person is drawn by the Father – John 6:65.
The fact that we don’t die immediately after committing sin and all the near-death experiences we all have had in this life are ways of drawing us to God but many people take them for granted. That’s why many are called (drawn) but few are chosen because it’s few that attribute their salvation or escape to God and repent whereas the rest carry on as though nothing had happened.
There was a time we almost collided with a stationary truck on the highway but God saved us and we missed it by a wicker. Instead of thanking God and repenting, my friend rushed to pick up his charms and started throwing it on our truck as if it was the charms that saved us. He completely ignored the call of God to repentance and salvation.
The same was the case with my friend who narrowly missed being shot by rival cultists just to proceed to his girl friend’s place to continue in sin instead of repenting. So, I warn you that is reading this now, never miss the drawing or calling of God on your life.
Let’s now take a look at the uphill task of going to hell by going over a story of the stages and processes of committing a certain sin. Every sin has very difficult stages or hurdles that must be surmounted in order to successfully commit it and that explains the statement by Christ which says, “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28. Sin is hard labor (apart from other deadly consequences) from which we need salvation and rest.
A married man meets a woman and lies to her that he’s unmarried just to lure here into illicit relationship. So, he started by surmounting the fear of God who commands us not to lie. Having overcame the uphill task of pushing the fear of God behind him, he goes on to commit adultery. Now, he’s surmounted the fear of God, mustered enough courage to break the commandments not to lie, and not to commit adultery.
After sometime in this illicit affair, the woman takes in and this man (of course the woman is also a partner in these sins, after all, she should know they weren’t married) has another difficult mountain to climb which is to abort the baby in order to cover up the mess. He goes on to overcome his conscience and abort the baby. Remember, he also has to keep lying to cover up all his wild and exciting romans (stolen bread is always sweeter than your regular bread) with the strange woman while keeping his wife in the dark and each time he lies, he overcomes a mountain and that mountain is God himself.
Imagine the sort of “energy” he requires to overcome God!! All the while he’s been in this sin cycle, he’s always had the opportunity to repent and ask God to forgive him but he didn’t. Do you think it’s easy to go through all these stages of surmounting God in order to fulfill selfish desires? Of course, it’s not. It’s a very difficult, conscience bending undertaking. Sometimes, in order to fulfill the requirements of this sinful relationship, he does something very uncomfortable like borrowing money and working extra hard to pay up etc. You could imagine the huddles one has to cross in order to succeed as an armed robber, prostitute, pastor, politician, cultist, drug baron, witch, wizard, comedian, diplomat, soldier, pedophile, or just a corrupt person in any field of life.
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Most people assume it’s only heaven that’s difficult inherit but it’s also very difficult to make it to hell. Imagine you lied to get a job or to get married. As long as you’re in that job or marriage, you must keep overcoming God by keeping or maintaining that lie for as long as you live or are in that job. What a gargantuan amount of “energy” one requires to surmount God for a life time!!!! You see how hard it is to go to hell? Why not just repent and free yourself?
God is fair, just and equitable to all. His love is equal on all his creation. He’s just waiting for sinners to come back in repentance and he’s always ready, willing and able to forgive. The proponents of grace assume that people can’t repent and that God won’t forgive, so grace, from Jesus’ dying on the cross, is required to make God chose us whether or not we repent, etc. The bankruptcy of grace concept is obvious but the advocates are too daft or dishonest to see it.
God can and will always forgive if we repent and forgive others and man could always repent if he elects. That man is made in the image of God makes him capable of obeying God if he chooses. Man could fulfill every law of God if he wants to but he’s not just interested let alone committed to so doing. Some of the conditions given to men by native doctors or necromancers are so terrible and unimaginable but they still obey them because their eyes are on the end result which is usually money or their natural lives.
These same people would complain for just fasting for three days but they won’t have any qualms sleeping at cemeteries, sleeping with dead bodies, eating human flesh, killing human beings, sleeping with mad people just for material reward that soon perish.
Men, due to wickedness of their hearts, mystify God’s commandments in order not to obey it (even though God’s commands are very simple – Matt 16:1-4) but go on to fulfill dangerously complicated conditions given to them by Satan just because of material things of this life. So, it’s very hard to go to hell. It’s an uphill task.
Repent now so that a party is held on your behalf in heaven, for deciding to come back home! The Lord Jesus Christ bless your hearts. Amen.
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