12/10/13 Tim 23
A
young man at the grocery store named Tim, 23, told me he believes he will go to
heaven for three reasons: 1.) He goes to church every Sunday; 2.) He is a good
person; and 3.) All his close family
members are very active in church. No
mention of the cross or repentance or faith in Jesus. Since he is an active church attender, I
decided to put the question another way: “Let’s say I had come up to you here
like this but I had said that I knew you go to church and I wanted to know how
one can go to heaven when they die. What
would you tell me?” He didn’t know. The best he could come up with was “Come to
church and find out”. But I wonder, if
Tim didn’t find out after growing up attending church, how could a newcomer
expect to find out? Yet, a newcomer
might have some advantages over a long-time church attender. They haven’t been immunized by familiarity. They haven’t heard religious terms so many
times that they have lost their meaning.
For example, many church-attenders no longer stop to think that being “saved”
means that the horrible alternative is even possible. If we are saved, what are
we saved from? Like the pious Jews of
Jesus’ day who said “We have Abraham as our father” (Luke 3), salvation seems like
a given, as if they are entitled to it by association with family members, as
Tim demonstrated in his initial response.
I explained this to Tim: “It’s a great blessing to grow up in a church
family, but it can be a curse in some ways too.
God doesn’t have grandchildren.
We each need to have our own right relationship with him. It can be hard to take ownership of your own
faith and to have your own relationship with God.” I think being confronted with some crucial
questions and hearing the Gospel from a stranger away from the familiar church
setting – in a grocery store of all places – gave Tim fresh ears to hear the
truths of the Gospel. He left determined
to read his Bible for himself and to answer some of those questions I had asked
him.
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