Despite what you might hear to the contrary, this world is not going to go on forever. And no matter how many technological advances there are in the field of medicine, there will never be found a cure for death. The last incurable and inevitable disease. This means, that whether you like it or not, one day you will meet God. Now, the view prevalent in the world today is that, if indeed God does exist, then when we go before Him, we will be able to argue our case, we will be able to explain that actually we aren’t that bad and that the good stuff we’ve done will outweigh the bad, I mean come on, we’ve never actually killed anyone, or anything on that scale have we. 

Unfortunately, a popular view is not always a correct view. And as usual we need to go back to the Bible to see what God has to say on the matter. After all, He’s the one in charge of the court proceedings!

 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on what angle you come at, God’s word is quite clear about what happens to those who die without ever having trusting Jesus as their own Saviour.

 

Those who are without Christ are condemned to a Godless eternity in Hell.

 

A place, incidentally, the Bible mentions more than Heaven- so if you believe there is a Heaven you must also believe there is a Hell! However God’s court is not like the pop of courts that were around in the Middle Ages in England or during the Slavery years in the US, where the defendant was condemned before the trial even started. No, the Bible says that God is a fair judge. 

 

Picture the court scene.  Each case is taken individually on its own merit. The books will be opened, and the Lord will look at everything that has been done in your life. Then another book will be opened, the Book of Life. 

“Does their name appear?”

“Their name does not appear in the Book of Life”

Then the sentence will be passed, an eternity in Hell, away from God.

 

It’s a solemn scene, but people are convinced that when they get before God, that they will be able to argue their case. They will be able to point to the good stuff they’ve done. But they miss the point. (To be perfectly honest, even if there was a case to be made in your defense, when you stand before the Lord, in all his awesome power majesty and glory. You will not be able to say anything anyway! )

 

 Nothing we’ve ever done can in anyway begin to merit our own salvation!

 

God is not interested in doing things your way. You have nothing you can offer God. Isiah tells us that ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’ there is nothing that can outweigh the weight of sin. The same sentence that fell on Belshazzar, will fall on you. “You are weighed in the balance and found wanting” God is not able to just forget the wrong, God can’t overlook sin, in any form, it must be judged. God can’t just look at the good stuff and pretend the bad never happened, he wouldn’t be God if he did that. 

 

But this doesn’t have to be your fate. Because God has poured out everything he hold against sin on his Son at the Cross. So that all those who trust in himcan have their sin judged (Jesus was made sin) and also can have their sins forgotten (Hebrew 8:12). Instead of the terrible sentence of a lost eternity you read of above.

 

When you stand before the Lord, you will hear these words instead: “Well done my good and faithful servant- enter thou into the joy of the Lord”