Walking With Christ

Not too long ago, a young man asked me, “If God is so loving, why does He send people to hell?”

I had been where he was standing and his question took me right back to those days where there were too many questions that didn’t have answers. It happened in the blink of an eye, but I was reminded of that path that I had walked to prepare me for his question. I wanted so badly to help him skip so many of the hurdles to faith that I had encountered on my walk. I also knew that it wasn’t my place. In this case, this one instance, I could help, though.

This is a drastic oversimplification of the process that I walked through with him.

God is love. 1 John 4.

God is the absolute source of truth. That truth never changes. He set the design and then gave us examples. John 15:13.

Jesus went to the cross to create a way for us to still have a relationship even after turning away from the original design. John 3:16-21.

God, in the form of Jesus, lived out His definition of love. He loved us first. He loved us even when we didn’t or couldn’t love Him in return. 1 John 4:9-10.

We are given a choice. It is our choice. We must freely make this choice for ourselves. Deuteronomy 30:19-20.

We have a choice to make. The right choice means a hard path in life because of those who would choose the easy path. Matthew 7:13-14.

We are free to choose whichever path we desire. We are not free of the consequences of that choice. Matthew 25:31-46.

The choice we make will impact the future for not just us but everyone who follows us. Yes, they still have the same choice. The difference is whether or not we are adding to the weight pushing them towards the easy path. Joshua 24:15.

Long story short, God is love. True love cannot be forced. Free will exists because of love. God respects free will. To that end, God gave us free will so that we can make the choice to love Him back as He loved us. If we choose to love Him then we will spend eternity in paradise with Him. If we choose to not love Him then He will respect that choice even though it hurts. In respecting that choice, He will not force us to spend eternity with someone we do not love. This means that we will be separated from Him and those who love Him for all of eternity.

To be or not to be is not the question. To love or not to love, now, that is the right question. In the end, it’s the only question that really matters.