HELL SMELLS

(and so does legalism)

All right, I don't like the thought of people going to hell (well, maybe with a few exceptions). It's not a nice place. And it doesn't have air conditioning.

So ideas that mislead people into hell can annoy me sometimes. Legalism is one of those ideas. It annoys me all the time.

Mark during a friendly discussion with a legalist.

Legalism in it's purest form believes that you can avoid hell by being a good little boy or girl and following the rules. Sadly, a lot of people believe that. And with a lot of legalists God's rules aren't good enough. You've got to follow their rules, too. The American church deserves a lot of the blame. Too often, we give the wrong impression about what Christianity is really about.

But Biblical Christianity isn't focused on rules. It's focused on relationships -- especially our relationship with God.

'Cause you see, trying to follow the rules to earn heaven won't cut it. Now, God's standards are great and we should live by them. But the thing is -- we can't. His standards are perfect and holy -- and we are not.

That's why Jesus came. He lived a perfect life in line with God's standards for us. Then He died to take on the punishment we deserve for not living right. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

To put it another way, He earned heaven for us, then went through hell for us. (See my piece "From Psalm 22" for more on that.)

Then if we believe and trust in Him, He gives us heaven and a relationship with Him that never ends. And He gives it as a gift. We can't earn it. He already has. So He can give it to us if we just trust Him and receive it.

So if you're trusting in yourself to avoid hell and earn heaven, get your head out of the sand.

No legalists were harmed in the making of this picture.

Why trust in yourself when you can trust in Jesus? You can't earn heaven, got it? You can't do it. But He did it for you.

Check out Bad News and Good News for more. Better yet, read Galatians in the New Testament. In it, Paul writes about how Jesus is the way and legalism isn't. If you think I'm hard on legalists, you ought to read what Paul had to say about them. Yikes!

Ephesians 2:1-10 is also an important passage to read on this.

And if you want to talk, e-mail me at mark at godknows99 dot com.

back to home of God Knows What It's Like to be a Teenager