I have observed that certain sins are singled out that will “send
you to hell.” The sin described as having the most gravitational pull toward
the abyss in our culture seems to
be homosexuality. I had a homosexual friend ask me if his gay lifestyle would
send him to hell. When a person who has chosen a homosexual lifestyle asks me that question, my answer is, “No, we don’t go to hell for
our particular brand of sin. I sin. You sin. Is homosexuality a sin according
to the Bible? Yes, but so is greed, hatred, lying, lust, gossip, etc. Jesus
taught that it is something else entirely that sends a person to hell." Can I explain?
Many define sin as "the stuff that sends you to hell." Well it's not. Sins are the choices we make or positions we take that are destructive
to human flourishing (blessed/abundant life). Particular sins do NOT send
people to hell. If so, the patriarchs in the Bible are burning in hell (hint:
they’re not) A few examples:
Lying will not
send you to hell.
(Peter lied
when he said he did not know Christ – Matthew 26:73-75)
Adultery and
fornication will not send you to hell.
(David
committed adultery – 2 Samuel 11)
(Samson
committed fornication – Judges 16)
And yet notice their names in the roll call of the heroes
of faith - Heb 11:32 (KJV) “And what shall I more say? for the time would
fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of
David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets”
Stealing will
not send you to hell.
(The thief on
the cross obviously was guilty of this sin, yet notice Jesus' words, "this
day shalt thou be with me in paradise…" Luke 23:43)
Riotous living
will not send you to hell.
(Else how could the prodigal son be given as such an
example of forgiveness? Luke 15)
Hatred will
not send you to hell.
People on the way to hell commit sins, but so do people
on the way to heaven.
People who love God and follow Christ commit sins that
detract and prohibit their experience of a blessed and abundant life, but those sins do
not send them to hell (1 John 1:8-9)
Even Murder will not send you to hell.
(David, the man
after God's own heart, was a murderer - 2 Samuel 11)
(Paul, the
apostle to the Gentiles, consented to, and thereby participated in, the murder
of Stephen – Acts 6)
What sends a person to hell?
So here it is. According to Jesus, what sends people to
hell is self-righteousness. When speaking to a group of self-righteous people,
Jesus said, “What
sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For
you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into
twice the child of hell you yourselves are!" Matthew 23:15
Consider this teaching from Jesus in Luke 18:9-14
9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had
great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two
men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a
despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed
this prayer[b]:
‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t
cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that
tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my
income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance
and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his
chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I
tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God.
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted.”
Self-righteousness can take two forms. Religious
self-righteousness (Pharisees in the Bible) who in essence are saying, “God
owes me something because I have kept the rules better than other people.” Or
secular self-righteousness that in effect says, “I don’t need a Lord and
Savior, but if I do…I’m it.”
If self-righteousness sends a person to hell, what gets a
person to heaven? According to Jesus, getting to heaven starts with a person
recognizing his need for God’s mercy. That person then exercises faith in Jesus
as the source of his forgiveness. So someone who says, “I have achieved a good
record and now God owes me,” is NOT on the way to heaven, they are self-righteous.
The person who says, “My record is not good, I owe God” has taken the first, right step. The next step is trusting Christ as his source of forgiveness (Savior) and leader (Lord). This person is assured a
place in heaven (John 1:12, John 3:16, Romans 3:23-24, Ephesians 1:7).
This begs the question of all of us.
Will we humble ourselves, acknowledge our need for God’s
mercy, asking Jesus to be our Savior and Lord? Or will we continue descending
down the sulfurous path of self-righteousness?
A helpful prayer:
Lord Jesus, I really need forgiveness so I need you.
Please come into my life and be my
Savior. I want to make good and right decisions in life, so I follow you as my
Lord. Help me to know your ways and walk in them. Amen
My continuing prayer is that we grow in understanding of
all Jesus has done on our behalf and as a result, have hearts overflowing with
grateful love toward God, expressing that love in compassion toward our
neighbors (greedy neighbors, homosexual neighbors, Muslim neighbors, cantankerous
neighbors, et al) in Jesus' name, Amen.
