The Gospel. Part 4: What Happens If We Reject Jesus?

Please note. The passage for this talk is Matthew 25:31-46, however the main focus of the talk is v.46.

Part 4: What happens if we reject Jesus?

Today we have the fourth and last talk in my series on the gospel. We’re thinking about the question, ‘What happens if we reject Jesus?’

Quite a number of things either happen – or don’t happen – if we reject Jesus. Last week I used the analogy of a garden to talk about what changes if we ACCEPT Jesus. The garden of our lives comes under new ownership. The new owner, Jesus, takes care of the plants that are there and he tackles weeds and gets rid of rubbish. If we REJECT Jesus, that doesn’t happen. Isaiah talks about people whose hearts are ‘calloused.’ Some versions use the word ‘dull’ and a few versions have ‘insensitive.’ When a person hears God’s voice and ignores it, his heart gradually because calloused or dull or insensitive. So, if you hear God calling to you now, don’t delay! If you reject Jesus now, you may not hear God’s voice clearly in the future.

But today I really want to talk about what happens in the life to come if we reject Jesus. It’s a difficult subject to talk about but I believe it’s really important that we do. Apart from anything else, Jesus talked about it. That means that we need to.

In the passage Jo read for us, Jesus talked about ‘eternal punishment.’ We’ve probably grown up with that teaching and so we aren’t shocked by it any more. But when we think about it, it IS shocking.

David Clotfelter is a pastor in California. He’d become a Christian when he was a student. He then woke up to the Bible’s teaching on eternal punishment. He didn’t like it. But what made it even less palatable was the fact that God would choose who would be saved. Clotfelter wrote a book in which he defends the traditional Christian view. He described what he thought of it as a student:

"…what now bothered me was the evidence, from the Bible, that God Himself brings suffering on people, and that in the case of the impenitent He intends to continue doing so FOREVER. Worse yet, I found passages in the Scriptures that appeared to state that it is God who ultimately determines who will and who will not believe and be saved. This was staggering. Could it really be possible that God brings certain human beings into this world for the sole purpose of damning them?"

Clotfelter later rejects THAT idea. But let’s continue with Clotfelter’s account:

"I had had a taste of God’s goodness and a glimpse of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ; I knew that He is incapable of doing wrong. Yet there were times early in my Christian life when I was so horrified by the doctrines of hell and predestination that I found myself near despair."

So Clotfelter didn’t like the doctrine as a student. Did he come to like it better later on? Later in his book he wrote:

"…the doctrine of eternal punishment shatters me and reduces me to confusion and embarrassment."

Clotfelter wrote his book to defend the doctrine. But he clearly struggles with it.

Some years ago, I met someone called Michael. He helps lead university missions. We talked about a range of things. Among other things he commented that when he’s talking about the Christian faith, the three key questions that people in Western Europe ask concern suffering, hell, and sexuality. The doctrine of eternal punishment is part of the Christian teaching on hell. It isn’t just Clotfelter who struggles with it. Lots of people struggle with it. We just can’t get our minds around it.

One of the most basic reasons why we struggle with it is that is seems unjust. It even seems to contravene God’s principle of justice. God gave the ancient Israelites the law. One of the most basic principles that God set out for those ancient Israelites is called in Latin ‘lex talionis.’ We often refer to it as ‘an eye for an eye.’ Some people think that this principle is barbaric. It isn’t. It’s a key statement that punishment must fit the crime. In 18th century England a person could be hanged for all sorts of crimes – stealing a horse, for example. That doesn’t correspond to ‘lex talionis.’ The punishment isn’t proportionate to the crime. So, God set out the principle of ‘lex talionis’ or proportionality. Let’s apply that to our passage.

In the passage Jo read to us, Jesus separates people. In v.34 Jesus places some people on his right. Good things are coming their way. In v.35 Jesus explains why. It’s because of what they have DONE. In the Bible, salvation is by faith; judgement is on the basis of deeds.