I heard an interesting argument the other day, it went something along the lines of:
“Jesus died to forgive all my sins EXCEPT the sin of not believing in Him… Doesn’t that seem a little strange?”
Now, the point I think the person is making is that Jesus sacrificed himself for us, paying for ALL our sins EXCEPT for the sin of not believing in Him. Because the Bible states that UNLESS we believe in Jesus we will not go to heaven, whereas if Jesus indeed paid for ALL our sins, including the sin of NOT believing in Him, we would still go to heaven regardless…
Hopefully that makes sense (the argument that is).
So there are a few things that come to my mind immediately hearing this type of argument.
The first is that the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for our sins does not equate to being automatically granted access to heaven, at least not according to anything I can see Biblically, so the assumption that if ALL sins were forgiven equals heaven I don’t think is correct or any promise that God has made to us as humans. However that in itself doesn’t really get to the heart of the argument I don’t think.
The second thing that came to mind is this: is the choice to NOT accept Christ as savior a sin? I think the answer is yes: that willful unbelief is the rejection of God’s authority and sovereignty and the refusal to submit our lives which were given by Him. We as human’s can come up with all sorts or reasons ‘why’ we don’t believe in God or accept Him or whatnot but at the end of the day I think this choice is one not made in ignorance for those who have been presented with the Gospel and the truth.
So the next thought in the train then is of course: if Jesus DID indeed die for ALL sins as the Bible says, but this act alone doesn’t guarantee a place in heaven or reconciliation with God (as the Bible also says), what then is the missing piece to the puzzle. The answer I think is fairly straightforward, and is while Jesus and God may have opened the gate as it were, it is still up to us individually to make the choice to go through it. No one can ‘force’ the acceptance of a gift on another (unless we do not have free will which I’ve talked about before a few times…).
To sum up, I think it all comes back to the free will topic that is also at the root of many other discussions. The gift of salvation has been offered, those who accept it through faith will reap the rewards both in this life and the next, those who refuse it will suffer the consequences, both in this life and the next. Refusal OR acceptance does not change the fact the sacrifice was made and the gift offered. Jesus died for those that refused Him just as much for those that accepted Him.
I actually asked an AI this question, and this is the final statement it came up with which I thought was quite succinct…
“In the simplest terms: The pardon is offered to all, paid for by Jesus. To be saved, you must accept the pardon. If you reject the pardon, you remain condemned, not because the pardon wasn’t offered or paid for, but because you chose to spurn it.”
I guess the next question someone might follow up with is: “Well why do I need to ‘accept’ it to be saved then? If God REALLY loves me and already died for and paid for my sins, why wouldn’t He just ‘make a way’ for me to get into heaven in the end?”
The answer to that I think is He DID ‘make a way’… Through Jesus and faith in Him. So it kind of keeps looping back into this circle… If we choose to reject that way then how or why would we expect God to make a ‘different’ way. I think the real question being asked then is: “Why doesn’t God make MY WAY the way for me to get into heaven?” aka, why doesn’t God do what I think is right and good instead of HIS way and what HE says is right and good?
So that is a sort of different topic altogether but I think the only real answer to that is we are incapable of doing what is right and good on our own because we’ve become slaves to sin and the devil… And have consistently and definitively proven this throughout history. EVEN when God was directly telling His people exactly what to do through the Old Testament, they couldn’t do it… This is why the cross and the sacrifice, and grace and mercy God has extended to us, works. We are incapable of doing it on our own. Our own ‘ways’ will not accomplish anything. That acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty and goodness and trust in His plans and His morals instead of our own is the only way we can start a relationship with Him and be reconciled to Him.
To many this is foolishness, but to those who are being saved it is as life-giving water.