Journey Outside the Camp

Who's in the driver's seat?

My wife was speaking to a friend who had trouble letting God take charge in her life. This friend said that she was the kind of person who liked to be in the driver’s seat, and she found it very difficult to relinquish control. My wife gave her the following analogy which I found to be very useful.

Suppose the designer of the car wanted to drive you to the destination. The designer knows the car very well since he created it. He knows every nuance of the vehicle: how it turns, how it handles in wet weather, what speeds are optimal, etc. He can handle the car in any situation. He’s also a very good driver, always alert and never tired.

In addition, the designer also knows the way by heart. He knows all the points of interest, where the fuel stops are, the scenic spots and the dangers. He also knows what you like and can take you to interesting stops along the way. What’s more, he actually created the roads and highways too so he knows all the road conditions and he will never get lost.

In such a case, wouldn’t you like the designer to take the wheel and drive you to the destination? It would be such a pleasant drive. You can focus on the scenery and on the conversation.

God is that designer. He wants to take the wheel of our lives because he knows us better than we know ourselves. Why won’t we relinquish control of the steering wheel to such a person?

Why does God condemn those who have not heard of the Gospel?

We know that only through the Gospel can we be saved from eternal judgment. And we can only know the Gospel when someone tells us about it or when we read it in the Bible. If we receive the Gospel and choose to reject it, we are rightly condemned because we reject Jesus who is our sin-bearer.

Can it therefore be fair that people who have never heard the Gospel be judged and condemned? They never had a chance! That’s how we think about this but God says that’s not true. He has given everyone enough witness about himself so that no one can claim it was unfair. In fact, God says the revelation of himself to everyone is enough to stop all mouths from protesting about unfairness. Specifically, he has left three witnesses about himself for all people.

God’s revelation in nature

Romans 1:19-21

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

God has not let himself without a witness in nature. The Bible says that when we examine nature, we can see the evidence that points us toward God. Marvelling at nature’s complexity, variety and size (both macro and micro) should lead us to realise God created all of this. Nature is not a cosmic accident but a divine act of creation. But men choose to suppress this truth.

Our conscience condemns us

Romans 2:15, 16
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

The second witness is that God has written his law into the hearts of all men. Where do people get a sense of right and wrong from? People in urban centres and people in tribal settings have such different cultures and yet we can find similarities: the notion that killing is wrong; that taking what is not yours is stealing and so on. Where do these notions come from? God says he put them into the hearts of all men. He plants his law in our hearts. So even if we’ve never heard of the Ten Commandments, we know them by instinct; they are in our hearts. And our conscience, the little voice in our head, tells us over and over again that we have violated God’s law. The little that we know of God, we choose to rebel against.

History of the Jewish people

Romans 3:19, 20
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The third witness God gives us is the history of the Jewish people. Of all the peoples on earth, God chose to have a special relationship with them. He revealed himself to them, he gave them his oracles. The Jewish nation knew more about God than any other people on earth. They know his standards, they were given his law, they saw him in action.

Yet, despite all these special privileges, they failed to make themselves righteous. They took the law and tried to live up to its standards on their own strength. They failed. They could not make themselves righteous. Who are we then, to say we can keep God’s law? For this reason, the Bible says “every mouth may be stopped.” No one can claim that if given special revelation by God they can make themselves righteous. It can’t be done.

God judges you according to the standard you have
Not all will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Therefore God will judge those who have not heard by what little they know about him. From the three witnesses above, we see that everyone has some knowledge of God. A man may only understand one little thing about God. Maybe it’s the notion that stealing is wrong. Won’t it be possible therefore, that he keeps himself from stealing his entire life. Would God therefore judge him as righteous?

The Bible says such a man is only theoretical. No such person exists who can keep the little standard he knows about. Even if we know one thing that God demands from us, we will fail in keeping that one thing.

Romans 2:12
For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

This verse tells us that all will be judged according to the standard that they have. And guess what? No one will make it. The Gentiles will perish because of their sin  (even though they do not have the formal law) and the Jews will perish because although they have the law, they have failed to keep it.

The only hope and the only way is therefore through Jesus. He is our substitute. He bears the punishment our sin deserves and he clothes us with his righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Our response after being saved by Jesus is therefore to go preach the Gospel to all whom we can reach.

Romans 10:14, 15
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

All men stand condemned before God. No one can use the excuse that they know nothing about God because we all know something of God. We who believe, have the responsibility to go tell everyone how to be saved. The believer is the prisoner who has been set free from his cell and he has been given the key to go free the other prisoners. We need to take the key firmly in our hands and go back to the other cells. (cf. Romans 1:14)

Can Satan or his demons repent and be saved?

If God is willing to give man a chance to repent and be saved, does he give Satan and his demons the same chance? Is it possible that Satan might repent eand thus be saved?

Before we tackle that question, let's look at some characteristics of angels and demons first.

We know that God created everything and everything he created is good. (See Gen 1:31 and James 1:17.) In Psalm 148:1-6, the psalmist expresses praise to God for all his creation and among the things he created were the "angels" and "hosts". Furthermore, in Col 1:16, we read that through Christ all things on heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were created. This gives us further confidence that all creation, including angels, were created good.

So Satan, when he was first created by God, was good. How can he therefore become evil? Well, creation's goodness is finite, mutable (i.e., changeable) and corruptible. God's goodness on the other hand is infinite, immutable and incorruptible. In other words, while God will never turn to evil, the same is not true of his created beings. Secondly, evil is not something that is created, but it is a misuse or misdirection of good. When you choose to move away from God's goodness, that essentially is evil.

Okay, so in relation to Satan, he chose to rebel against God. Yes, he was created good, but no matter how glorious he might have been, he had his limitations. He saw things that he did not possess and he wanted them. He saw God's glory and he coveted it. In wanting what was not his, he could bring about evil by misusing the good that was in him. He chose to do this. He rebelled. He sinned.

We now have a better understanding of how God's creature could turn evil. Man also rebelled and fell into sin. But God provided a plan of redemption for man. God provided an atoning sacrifice in Jesus Christ and through Jesus, he redeemed the human race and brought glory to himself for his love, grace and mercy.

However, Satan and his demons were not offered salvation. Hebrews 2:16 says, "For surely it is not angels that he [God] helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham." (The context here is deliverance from spirtual slavery and death.) God is saying here he saves man but not fallen angels, i.e., Satan and his demons. Also, 2 Peter 2:4 says, "God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment." (See also Jude 6.) It therefore seems pretty clear that God does not intend to save fallen angels.

Furthermore, the Bible doesn't give us any reason to believe that Satan or his demons will repent if they were given a chance. Satan is bent on causing God as much destruction as possible. 1 Peter 5:8 says, "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." The Bible also tells us that one of the way God judges us is based on how much we know of him. "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more." (Luke 12:48). Imagine how much more the fallen angels, with their superior intellect and the past time they've spent in God's presence, know about God and therefore, how much worse their judgment will be at the last day.

The answer to the question is therefore, no, Satan and his demons will not be saved. God did not intend for it to happen and they are not interested in being saved anyway. In the end, the most amazing thing is that we humans will be the ones to judge Satan and his demons. 1 Corinthians 6:3 says, "Do you not know that we are to judge angels?" And after the judgment, God will take Satan and his demons and throw them into the place he prepared for them, the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:10).

When we suffer, is God punishing us?

A good friend asked me, "When we suffer, is God punishing us?" and my friend asked specifically about several verses in Hebrews.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:5,6)

First of all, does God punish by making people suffer? Answer: it depends on who is in question. There is no doubt that God judges the world. The Bible has numerous passages that talk about how God will judge the world. Several verses:

But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness. (Psalm 9:7,8)

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 96:10)

Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished (Proverbs 11:21a)

I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity... (Isaiah 13:11a)

For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. (Isaiah 26:21a)

God has every right to judge the world, since he is the creator and owner of the world. He established his moral law which he will uphold and that means he will judge everyone in the world fairly and he metes out his punishment accordingly.

But for those who trust in Jesus and are rescued by his blood and are now called children of God, there is no punishment. But wait a minute, Christians suffer all the time. Christians suffer a lot. What's that about?

We need to make a distinction between punishment and discipline. Yes, Christians suffer, but not because God is punishing us. Listen to Paul's words in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Paul is saying that as Christians we no longer stand guilty of being sinners. Christ paid the punishment for our sins. God no longer requires us to "serve time" for what we have done wrong. Jesus has paid the death penalty that all our sins deserve. When we stand before God, we stand as free men, we stand as adopted sons, not criminals before the judge. We are no longer condemned. Listen to more from Romans.

"For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:2-4).

As you can see, Jesus dying on the cross for us fulfills what the law requires as punishment. Now let's look at In 1 Cor. 11:29-32. Here, Paul writes about something unusual happening in the church at Corinth. It appears that members of the church at Corinth are falling ill and some have even died after taking part in the Lord's Supper. Paul attributes it to the fact that they are abusing the Lord's Supper. He says, "For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." (1 Cor 11:29-32).

Paul seems to be saying here that the sickness and even death of some Christians for their unworthy manner in which they approached the Lord's Supper is a disciplining that the Lord is meting out among them. It was a gracious chastening that was intended to keep the church from being condemned. Imagine! The Lord is using sickness to discipline. It just goes to show how limited our perspective can be when we view fellow believers who have been stricken with illness. We often claim they are being punished for some sin in their life where in reality, it may be that God in his graciousness is rescuing that person from condemnation by his chastening through illness.

So do not dread the disaster that befalls us. For those of us who love the Lord, he is showing his love to us through his discipline. God disciplines those whom he loves. It is the same thing I tell my children. "I discipline because I love you. If I did not love you, I would not bother with you." Rejoice therefore, at the Lord's discipline.

Was there another way besides Jesus on the cross?

Here's an interesting question. Why did Jesus have to die for our sins? I mean, why him, specifically? In the Old Testament, God asked the people to bring an animal substitute. This animal from the flock or the herd, had to be without blemish. Its blood had to be spilt to make an atonement for the sinner. Beginning with Adam and all through most of the Bible, believers brought animal sacrifices to make an atonement.

But in Hebrews 10:4, God says, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

Why? An animal can never be our proper substitute. Suppose you were driving and you crashed into someone’s expensive Mercedes Benz. It would be your responsibility to replace the Mercedes Benz you wrecked. What if you gave the owner a toy model of a Mercedes Benz as a replacement for his wrecked car? Would that be an equivalent replacement? No, it would not. You would have to replace his car with another real Mercedes Benz. It is the same with animals. They could never be a sufficient substitute for us. The animal sacrifice was an act of faith and a visual aid to help people understand that a suitable, sinless substitute would have to die for their sin. Another human had to die for us. God's wrath against sin could only be satisfied with the death of a sinless person.

Okay then, how about another perfect Adam? What if God were to create a second perfect Adam? In today's Net parlance, we could call him Adam 2.0. What if God kept this perfect man from sinning his whole life and then this Adam 2.0 offered his life as a substitute for us and died for us. Would that work? Would that be an acceptable payment for our sin?

Let's think about this carefully. God’s plan of salvation involves two parts. One is getting our sin-debt paid in full. The second part is he will give us his righteousness.

"For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21.

God laid our sin on Jesus and then Jesus gave us, or imputed, his righteousness into us. It was the same thing God did with Abraham; God applied his righteousness to him because Abraham trusted him. God wants to do the same with us. But he will only do that when our sin-debt is paid for.

Let's get back to Adam 2.0. He's just a man. If he were to die for us and pay for our sin-debt, how long would he have to pay? Remember that the punishment for sin is eternal separation from God and suffering in the lake of fire. How long would this second Adam have to stay in the lake of fire? Answer: Forever. In other words, he would never finish paying off our sin-debt. We would be waiting forever in limbo for our sin-debt to be paid which means we would never receive God’s righteousness. We could never be with God.

So a second perfect Adam cannot be our substitute. We need someone who is infinite to pay an infinite debt. Who do we know is infinite? Yes, Jesus is infinite. He is infinite because he is God. And he was also a human. Therefore he could pay our infinite sin-debt. Jesus was the only one who could be our substitute. Thus, when he prayed at Gethsemane, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36), it wasn't a human failing but a confirmation for us that no one else but Jesus could be our substitute and sin bearer. He was not only praying for himself but praying to show us there was no other way. What an amazing truth to absorb.