Saving And Judging

Many religious people feel that God is judging them; that they have not done enough to be accepted by God. Jesus knew that sensitive hearts would feel like that, so He told them plainly that He had not come to judge them, but to save them. Although everybody is a sinner, Jesus came to earth to take the blame for their wrong when He died on the cross. That was the Father’s purpose in sending Jesus to earth - so that those who believe in Him can be saved from God’s wrath. The only people who will be judged on the Last Day are those who reject Jesus.
 
In the meanwhile, until Jesus comes again, God is patient: He does not want anyone to perish but longs that people will believe in Jesus and be saved (1 Peter 3:9). The call to receive this salvation is not just an invitation, but a command. Acts 17:30 says, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” To rebel against that command is highly offensive to God; if people persist in rejecting Jesus, they must suffer the full force of God’s judgement on the Last Day.
 
In the same way that Jesus Christ called people to obey Father God’s command, to believe in Jesus and not reject Him, the Body of Christ (the church) now has the same responsibility. Evangelism is not just behaving in a godly manner and praying that people will believe in Jesus. Nor is it only telling people about Jesus. Certainly, all that is included; but the focus of evangelism is calling people to put their trust in Jesus, in obedience to His command. Of course, we do not have authority over people to make them do what we say, but we are under God’s authority to tell them about Jesus and urge them to respond to Him. We must do so gently and respectfully (1 Peter 3:15), but we need to make it clear that we have obeyed the call to repent and believe … and the same message is for them also.