A moment of grace, please. Tonight’s Bible study lesson is on Judgment, and I have a difficult time talking about damnation, Hell, Sheol, Hades . . . fill in the blank–not because I have a problem with judgment or justice, it’s just that when I do speak of the day of reckoning, I can almost see my words twisting in the air. The major problem with which I struggle is not theological, but homiletical (preaching). When I preach a difficult word of God “saving the righteous” and “casting out the unrighteous,” in the eyes of the community, I do not see conviction; rather I feel affirmation–which is an unsettling thought. In other words, in my spirit I do not hear, “I should repent and change my ways.” I hear, “They should repent and change their ways.” It seems that those who err on the side of God’s justice and judgment do so for their own behalf–“I am right and they are wrong, and God has a stern word for them.”
Now, who disagrees with their own point of view? To be fair, there is a strong conviction that how I am living my life in Christ is the way to living abundantly; however I am smart enough to know that I am not always right. Far from it. In fact, I believe I am far enough along on my Christian journey to know the power of sin, that sin has the power to render me unable to choose the good, and if this is true, I should not be putting faith in my own conviction that I am on the straight and narrow.
This is why I must trust in God’s grace, which brings me to my theological questions. Now, I’m going to play the part of Abraham for a moment, so don’t blame me, I’m just being Biblical . . . stay tuned for Part II.