Rob Bell, in his book Velvet Elvis, says this:
God is retelling each of our stories in Jesus. All of the bad parts and the ugly parts and the parts we want to pretend never happened are redeemed. They seemed pointless and they were painful at the time, but God retells our story and they become the moments when God's grace is most on display. We find ourselves asking, am I really forgiven for that? The fact that we are loved and accepted and forgiven in spite of everything we have done is simply too good to be true. Our choice becomes this: We can trust his retelling of the story, or we can trust our telling of the story. It is a choice we make every day about the reality we are going to live in.
And this reality extends beyond this life.
Heaven is full of forgiven people.
Hell is full of forgiven people.
Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.
Hell is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.
The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust.
Ours or God's
When we choose God's vision of who we are, we are living as God made us to live. We are living in the flow of how we are going to live forever. This is the life of heaven, here and now. And as we live this life, in harmony with God's intentions for us, the life of heaven becomes more and more present in our lives. Heaven comes to earth. (Pg. 146-147)
I have been wresting with this idea for several days now. It's a powerful one. To me, it maintains the universal offering of Jesus' grace and forgiveness to all, while making clear that there are many that choose not to accept it. The offering doesn't cease to be universal even if some say NO.
To me this is a better way to explain the Gospel to someone who either knows nothing of Jesus Christ or - even better - someone who has a warped view of Him.
What do you think?
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Seeing the life of salvation from another angle. There is little doubt that salvation is just that, paradise, regardless of how - one views it. It's God's gift to the mortals - who seek, accept it. It is one of the more precious gifts. Until one has been the recipient of salvation's potential, it leaves a lot to be desired. For those that are in receipt of it(salvation), it is strongly recommended that it become a number one priority. Seek help, if needed.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. Is hell actually "full of forgiven people", or is it full of people who were freely, lovingly, OFFERED forgiveness - but just did not accept it ("I don't believe this concept"; "I never heard of this concept"; "No, thanks for the offer, but I don't happen to need it"; "I've been too bad for God ever to be able to forgive ME, so I can't possibly accept this offer"...or some other version of "just saying 'no'").
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