So where does grace end and judgement begin? Is it possible for someone to come to genuine repentance after they die and realise they got it all wrong? Sometimes I think that as I get older I ask too many hard questions to which I once thought I knew the answers.
A fool without arguments
ReplyDeleteI don't think they can. "It is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgement". Can't remember chapter and verse, but I think that's it.
ReplyDeletethanks lane!
ReplyDeleteHebrews 9:26-28 (New International Version)26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.I thought of that verse too Lois, but the emphasis here is not on the immediacy of judgement after we die but on the fact that Christ's one sacrifice is sufficient for everyone.I'm not advocating that "everyone gets to heaven in the end." I remember at theological college that one lecturer said he thought that in the end God's love was irresistible and that on Judgement Day, people would be saved by this revelation of love. I don't think that love that is irresistible is really love at all. And such an idea really ignores God's holiness and the need to address sin and redress injustice.On the other hand, I do think that the river of grace flows in very different directions to our expectations. Having said all of that, the details of heaven, the new earth and judgement have to remain a mystery until we get there. What we do know is that if we call on the name of Jesus we will be saved from the Judgement.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDelete