Will God save everyone?
Others believe and teach that everyone will be saved. They argue that those who reject God during this present age would choose to follow God in the next life. Surely, it could appeal in our human heart, but where do we find such kind of teaching in God’s Word?
Rather, this is what we read in Isaiah 26:10-11 --
“Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD.
O LORD, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them” (NIV).
Not all who have been shown the saving grace of God would learn righteousness. There are those living in this age of corruption, or would be placed “even in a land of uprightness” who would still choose to do evil and would not regard “the majesty of the Lord.”
Why? Is it because they just choose to do evil and choose to “regard not the majesty of the Lord”?
First, notice also in the above passage that “your people” is mentioned. They are God’s people. They see and appreciate the grace of God. They are able to learn righteousness. They regard the majesty of the Lord. And the writer was telling God to let the wicked see God’s zeal for His people.
Just what is this zeal of God for His people?
And did His people just choose to learn righteousness? Did they just choose to regard the majesty of the Lord? Were they able to desire and do the right way, because they are not like the rest – wicked?
As one of the leaders of the denomination I was a member before told me:
“…I presume you have been called by God and you accepted his gift of grace in worshipful gratitude for his mercy. You are allowing the Holy Spirit to transform you into the image of Christ, and for this you are supremely grateful. You do not resist the Spirit and follow him eagerly as he leads you daily…”
Besides, we read in the last part of verse 9 of Isaiah 26, “When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.” So, is it right to conclude that there are people who would choose to learn righteousness in their own desire alone, when God’s judgment would come upon the earth?
Could I really claim that I am different from the rest? That though I am spiritually blind, yet I am able to accept God’s gift “in worshipful gratitude”? That by my own human will, I can allow the Holy Spirit to transform me into the image of Christ? And though the Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9), I would not resist the Spirit and “follow him eagerly”?
Of course, the word “people” in Isaiah 26:9 who would learn righteousness does not refer to everyone in the world, for in the next verse it says, “Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness…”
But those who are able to learn righteousness, who regard the majesty of the Lord, who are able to walk in the way of God’s laws and who wait and desire for Him (verses 8 & 9) have acknowledged that what they did are not just the product of their “worshipful” attitude, or “eagerness”, or “gratitude,” or human will!
We read in Isaiah 26:12, “LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”
Rather than to agree with the church leader, I would prefer to believe that I was able to learn righteousness, to regard the majesty of the Lord, to receive the gift of God, or to allow the Holy Spirit to transform me into the image of Christ – because God had enabled me, or everything I did that merits in God’s eyes, He had done for me.
It’s also helpful to remember the following words of God in Ezekiel 36:26-27, though others do not believe that it could apply even to the non-Jews:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Without God’s enabling power, we would be just like the rest. “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).
Notice the declaration:
“O LORD, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it.”
Though God’s grace, His Goodness, His Majesty would be displayed – His Hand lifted high before us – the wicked do not see it. Why don’t they see it? Is it because they just refuse or reject to behold it? The Bible answers, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Though others would find it difficult to accept, there are people whom the Sovereign God “gave them up…”
“…God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions… God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful…” (See Romans 1:20-31, NKJV).
But God’s zeal for His people is manifested as He enabled them to see His Great Worth. Verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 4 states, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (NIV).
God made His Light to shine in the hearts of the believers. In the words of Ezekiel 36, He gave them “a new heart.” In Acts 16:14, the Lord “opened” the heart of the believer.
He gave them not only “a new heart,” but also “a new spirit.” He gave them His Spirit to move them to follow Him. As Paul wrote the Christians in Rome, “…God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom. 5:5). Also, in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
The Sovereign God did not only manifest His Grace to His chosen people, but He also enabled them to see it! Not only He sent Jesus Christ to seek and save them, but He also gave them the faith to believe in Him (see Eph. 2:8). Thus, “all who were appointed for eternal life,” as we read in Acts 13:48, “… believed.” However, we read in the last part of John 3:18, “…but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
The time is coming when the unbelievers will see God’s zeal for the elect. And they will be put to shame. As we read in Daniel 12:2, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” For as we read in the first part of Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, the UNbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars -- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur…” They have no place in the Kingdom of God.
By then, finally, God’s Words says, “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not” (Mal. 3:18).
PRAYER: Sovereign God, our Loving Holy Father, Your Great Love for us not only enabled us to behold Your Greatness and Mercy, but also to bow down before You and praise You for Your Grace. Let Your Mercy be enjoyed more by Your people and move us to live with greater zeal in accord with Your Holy Will. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.
