Scoundrel Joe

On my last Saturday in the Philippines, June 27, I was feeling terrible but chose to attend the wedding of a Filipino friend.  Unable to do testing, I worried that my cancer was advancing rapidly and that I only had a few weeks to make preparations.  Now, 8 months later, with my preparations done, I’m still around experiencing a few discomforts but nothing major, yet.  I am not bothered at all by the thought of death; I’m ready for it and I’m excited for what comes afterwards.  The Lord’s grace continues to flood my soul with His joy and peace.

There are some people who are now reading my blog that I want to share something with. You would think that no issue carried more importance than where we spend eternity.  In recent decades, most people have bought in to John Lennon’s theology, “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try.  No hell below us, above us only sky.”  I wonder if John is currently pleased with his choice?

But I will assume that anyone reading this has already settled the issue of God’s existence, and hopefully has also discovered the joy of experiencing His presence.  Jesus gave us a chilling warning, “Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few are those who find it” (Matt.7:14).  That word “few” should cause anyone who is not sure of their eternal destiny to stay up at night.  He also suggests that ‘finding’ the narrow way is not where most people think to look.

I’ve attended a lot of funerals, and I’ve never heard a speaker say something like this…

     “Here lies scoundrel Joe, ready for the grave. 
     He wasn’t very smart, wasn’t very brave.
     Meaner than a junk-yard dog, worse than a lying rat. 
     Ol’ sneaky, surly, scoundrel Joe, we all know where he is at!”

Nope, won’t hear that at a funeral, no matter how close to the truth it might be.  Why? Because we want to be nice and assume that every person has been good enough to earn heaven.  (And if not, they vainly hope, maybe a few years in purgatory will purge out all the bad stuff.)  Almost everyone thinks of himself as good enough.  Even Al Capone, the most sinister gang leader who ever shot up Chicago, said, “I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time.”

For people who think this way, the scary thing is that nowhere in Scripture does anyone ever get to heaven by being good.  Instead we hear warnings like this: “You cannot be saved through your own efforts” (Eph. 2:8-9).  “God did not save us because we deserved it…” (1 Tim.1:9).  “No one can ever be made right with God by being good” (Rom.3:20 and Gal.2:16).  There is absolutely nothing we can do for God that can tip the scales of salvation in our favor.

Instead, Scripture is flooded with verses that say salvation is completely, 100%, totally by God’s mercy and grace alone.  “He saved us, not because of the good things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5).  “For by grace are you saved…” (Eph. 2: 5 and 8). “We are saved by the underserved grace of the Lord, Jesus” (Acts 15:11).  

God did this so that He could “reveal the riches of His glory to those who were the objects of His mercy” (Rom. 9:23), “in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Eph.2:7).  In the end, it’s all about God’s amazing grace, not about our good works.

Why do we need God’s mercy?  Because God is so holy that even one small sin (like Eve eating the wrong fruit), is enough to separate us from God forever.  God says that the payment for any sin, even tiny ones, is death (Rom. 6:23), not good works, not the Rosary, not good intentions, not purgatory.  And that’s what Jesus did – He paid the death penalty we deserved for ALL our sins, so that “whoever believes in Him [not in our good works] shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  He did this to show us what mercy and love really looks like (Rom. 5:8).

Then, when we give all the credit to Jesus for our salvation and not to our good works, God promises to give us His Holy Spirit who empowers us to say ‘no’ to sin and ‘yes’ to what is good (Rom. 8: 11-14).  Oh, how incredible it is to experience His Spirit “at work in us, giving us the power and the desire to do what pleases Him” (Phil. 2:13).  It’s the presence of God’s Spirit in us that gets us into heaven (Rom. 8: 15-17), not our good works. 

This is the gospel.  This is the good news.  This is our eternal security.  This is what you must share with those who are not sure about their eternal destination, even people like scoundrel Joe.