The Gospel of Christ

Hey all, I have been in a great dialogue with a friend.

They asked this question and my answer is below. I am posting it here to edify first of all, but also as a way of evalutation. Any suggestions to help make my presentation more communicatable? Or better wording?

Finally, if you have nothing to say about it directly, can you offer any illustrations you give in presenting the Gospel?

Thanks
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“Here's another question of my own, I'd be interested in your take on it. Why did Judas have to go to hell? If God is all forgiven, and one is truly sorry for one's sin....why wasn't Judas forgiven---he obviously was very distraught enough to commit suicide. In the "Mystic City..." book Mary touched upon the subject a bit stating that she saw where his(Judas) soul was going and tried to intervene but he kept spiraling away from Jesus (put into my own words not quoted from book). So, then his (Judas) fate in life to turn Jesus over?”

Great question! My answer is longer than my previous answer to your previous question. However the nature of your question is not a simple one. IT is pretty big actually, but you have asked a great question, because it gets to the main roots to Christianity. Please do not faint, or grow weary, but read the whole answer. And I welcome any comments, or further questions to help clarify what I am saying. God bless you, Cheryl.

You have some assumptions here that might get in the way of the answer I would offer. You and I deserve Hell just as much as Judas does. And God is not all-forgiving, though there are many people whom God completely forgives. If God were all forgiving, then all would be in Heaven, right?

Does God forgive sinners upon the basis of their being truly sorry for their sins? Absolutely not. We have 2 clear examples, one being Judas, and the other Esau, who sought repentance with tears for his forsaking the birthright, yet did not find it (Heb 12:16, 17).

Forgiveness comes through Jesus Christ alone. God is perfectly just and will not simply look past sins committed. Rebellion against the eternal law of the eternal God requires eternal punishment. Since all of us have rebelled against His law, we all deserve eternal punishment.

And God, being perfectly merciful, made a covenant, between Father and Son. The Son was to go as a suffering servant and save His people from their sins. When He put Himself on the cross, He took upon Himself the actual punishment of Hell for sinners.

Christ’s work is not even 1% a waste, and so He redeems ALL that He died for. This has satisfied the Justice of God, and is the basis in which God forgives sinners. Not on the basis of their being sorry, but on the basis of the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

Christ, being without sin, could then transfer His status of “without guilt of sin” upon the Sinner, just as the sinner’s status of “guilty of sin” was transferred upon Christ. And on the basis of that sinful status took upon Himself the penalty of that sinful status.

The Christian then, is one for whom Christ died, and puts their faith in the finished work of Christ, believing that His righteousness ALONE is sufficient to satisfy the just wrath of God.

Judas was never a Christian. He never trusted in the work of Jesus alone, but rather trusted that God would wipe away his bad deeds, by his good deeds. This is as foolish as the murderer who tries to avoid his penalty by telling you all the good things he has done in life. Is he free of his crime? Will that satisfy the court? Is he no longer guilty because he is truly sorry? If our courts are at least to a small degree just in meeting out the penalty for the crime, how much more just is the True and Living God?

But what if there was one, a perfect one upon whom there could be no judgment of “GUILTY”. What if he took the penalty of the murderer upon Himself, and said that his “GUILTLESS” status was to be applied to the murderer (this is called imputation)? To then exact the penalty upon the murderer too would be unjust, for first, the murderer’s crime has been paid, through penalizing the Guiltless on his behalf, and second, the murderer’s status is now “guiltless” by way of imputation.

This is the glorious Gospel of Christ, that He came to save sinners from their sins, and offers freely, by His grace alone, redemption from the curse of sin, and eternal damnation. The apostle Paul was not ashamed to tell all of this truth (Rom 1:16). This you will never hear in the Roman Catholic Church, for they teach that Christ simply died to open the gates of Heaven, but it is your work to enter in. And so they want you to trust in your good deeds, and your faithful practices of all the rituals they have made up, so that hopefully when you meet your Maker, your good will outweigh your bad, and God will recognize this, and say, “by your good, you are righteous enough to come in.” *sigh, what a lie, a lie that keeps us from trusting in Christ and His righteousness alone. A lie that will keep many from Heaven, and a false belief that will lead many to Hell.

Thanks for taking the time to read. I look forward to any future dialogue. Please do try to answer the question I offer above, “What was that Standard you used to help you determine the church law right or wrong?”