Where’s the bar?
Not the local watering hole, but the dividing line between
in and out, between life and death, heaven and hell.
When it comes to eternity, it’s an important question, but
because it seems too complicated or even impossible to determine, many people
just give up and leave it to fate. After
all, God is the all-knowing and wise judge, and the decision is His alone.
That seems to have been the conclusion of two people I
talked to while Christmas shopping in Naperville. The first, a man at the bookstore named Pat, believed
that one can’t be sure of salvation but that regardless of one’s religious
beliefs it depends on how well they have followed the golden rule. He seemed reasonably sure he follows it well,
extending grace to people of all religions as long as they, too, treat others
as they would want to be treated. Right
after our conversation I talked with another man who said he would could never make
the grade, that he could never be accepted by God after all the evil he has
done.
So did I just see the dividing line in action, or is it more
complicated than that?
It reminds me of the parable Jesus told about two men who
also seemed to be on opposite sides of that same line: “Two men went up to the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee (an ultra-religious and self-righteous Jewish
group in Jesus’ day) and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by
himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers,
evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and
give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax
collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat
his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Jesus showed us a “dividing line” that is opposite of what
we might expect. He concluded His
parable by saying “I tell you that this man (the humbled tax collector), rather
than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt
themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
I’m not writing this to single out Pat as a modern-day
Pharisee. The vast majority of people I
talk with – over 99 percent – view themselves as worthy of heaven, with the
exception of those who have embraced the biblical view of their own sinfulness and
their desperate need for the Savior.
Most “modern-day Pharisees” I meet are not outwardly
religious, but they are guilty of much the same sin as their biblical counterparts. Jesus described their sin when he told them “You
have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mark 7)
In our day, these “human traditions” that have replaced God’s
commands include an acceptance of every other tradition out there, except for
biblical Christianity. One litmus test
of “loving thy neighbor” has become not just accepting the beliefs of others, but celebrating them, instead
of sharing the way to salvation.
The second man I talked to had much in common with the tax
collector in Jesus parable, who stood his distance and would not look up to
heaven. I didn’t get his name because he
was reluctant to engage in conversation with me except to tell me that he didn’t
deserve heaven, and, unfortunately, he cut the conversation short before I
could share the hope of the Gospel with him.
My prayer for both he, and Pat, and all modern-day pharisees
is that like all who have embraced the need for Jesus as Savior, they will do
exactly what the tax collector did, who “…beat his breast and said, ‘God, have
mercy on me, a sinner.’
PS - Thank you Pat, for your kindness in allowing me to
record our conversation. My hope for you
is salvation through faith in Jesus! Our
conversation can be seen HERE.
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