Mercy for all

On September 14, 2001, the day of mourning, when people across America and elsewhere gathered in churches, they came seeking words of comfort, encouragement, and hope. However, a number of conservative Christian church leaders—contrary to their intention of offering hope to the grieving nation—unwittingly spread a message that fueled despair, discouragement, and fear. This was particularly true for those who had lost loved ones in the attack, family members, or friends who had not yet professed their faith in Christ. Many fundamentalist and evangelical Christians are convinced that anyone who dies without having professed their faith in Jesus Christ, even if only because they had never heard of Christ in their lifetime, will go to hell after death and suffer unspeakable torment at the hands of the very God these same Christians ironically invoke as the God of love, grace, and mercy. “God loves you,” some of us Christians seem to say, but then comes the small print: “If you do not say a fundamental prayer of repentance before death, my merciful Lord and Savior will torture you for all eternity.”

Good news

The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news (Greek euangélion = good news, salvation message), with the emphasis on “good”. It is and remains the happiest of all messages, for absolutely everyone. Not only is it good news for the few who made the acquaintance of Christ before death; it is good news for all of creation - all human beings without exception, including those who died without ever hearing of Christ.

Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice not only for the sins of Christians, but for those of the whole world. (1Joh 2,2)The creator is also the reconciler of his creation. (Kol 1,15-20)Whether people learn this truth before their death does not affect its truthfulness. It depends solely on Jesus Christ, not on human actions or any human reactions.

Jesus says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Joh 3,16)It is God who loved the world, and God who gave his Son; and he gave him to redeem what he loved—the world. Whoever believes in the Son whom God sent will enter into eternal life (better: “into the life of the age to come”).

Not a syllable is written here that this belief must come before physical death. No: the verse says that believers "shall not perish," and since even believers die, it should be obvious that "perish" and "die" are not one and the same. Faith prevents people from being lost, but not from dying. The perishing Jesus speaks of here, translated from the Greek appolumi, denotes a spiritual death, not a physical one. It has to do with final annihilation, extermination, disappearance without a trace. Anyone who believes in Jesus will not find such an irrevocable end, but will enter into the life (soe) of the age to come (aion).

Some will die in their lifetime, as earthwalkers, to life in the age to come, to life in the kingdom. But they represent only a small minority of the "world" (kosmos) that God so loved that he sent his Son to save them. What about the rest? This verse is not saying that God cannot or will not save those who physically die without having believed.

The idea that physical death permanently prevents God from saving someone or bringing someone to faith in Jesus Christ is a human interpretation; the Bible says nothing of the sort. Rather, we are told: A person dies, and then comes judgment. (Hebr 9,27)The judge, we should always remember, will thankfully be none other than Jesus, the slain Lamb of God who died for the sins of mankind. That changes everything.

Creator and reconciler

Where does the idea come from that God can only save the living, not the dead? He overcame death, didn't he? He rose from the dead, didn't he? God doesn't hate the world; he loves it. He didn't create humankind for hell. Christ came to save the world, not to judge it. (Joh 3,17).

Am 16On September 1st, the Sunday after the attacks, a Christian teacher told his Sunday school class that God is as perfect in hatred as he is in love, which explains why there is a hell in addition to heaven. Dualism (the idea that good and evil are two equally strong opposing forces in the universe) is a heresy. Didn't he realize that he was thereby projecting dualism onto God, that he was postulating a God who carries and embodies the tension between perfect hatred and perfect love?

God is absolutely just, and all sinners are judged and condemned, but the Gospel, the Good News, reveals to us the mystery that God, in Christ, took this sin and this judgment upon himself as our substitute! Indeed, hell is real and terrible. But it was precisely this dreadful hell, reserved for the godless, that Jesus endured on behalf of humanity. (2Kor 5,21; Mt 27,46; Gal 3,13).

All people have incurred the punishment for their sins. (Röm 6,23)But God gives us eternal life in Christ (same verse). That is why this is called grace. In the previous chapter, Paul expresses it this way: “But the gift is not like the sin. For if through the sin of the one man the many died [‘the many’ means all, everyone; there is no one who does not bear Adam’s guilt], how much more has God’s grace and gift been abounding to the many [again: all, absolutely everyone] through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Röm 5,15).

Paul says: As severe as our sin punishment is, and it is very severe (the verdict is hell), it still takes a back seat to grace and the gift of grace in Christ. In other words, God's word of atonement in Christ is incomparably louder than His word of condemnation in Adam—one is completely drowned out by the other ("how much more"). That is why Paul can 2. Korinther 5,19 say: In Christ, “God reconciled the world [everyone, the ‘many’ from Römer 5,15] with himself and no longer imputed their sins to them ..."

Returning to the friends and relatives of those who have died without professing faith in Christ: Does the Gospel offer them any hope, any encouragement regarding the fate of their loved ones who have passed away? Indeed, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says verbatim: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (Joh 12,32)This is good news, the truth of the Gospel. Jesus did not set a timetable, but he explained that he wanted to draw everyone to himself, not just a select few who managed to get to know him before their death, but absolutely everyone.

No wonder Paul wrote to the Christians in the city of Colossae that it had “pleased” God, note: “pleased” him, to reconcile to himself through Christ “everything, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” (Kol 1,20)That's good news. And, as Jesus says, it's good news for the whole world, not just for a limited circle of chosen ones.

Paul wants his readers to know that this Jesus, this Son of God raised from the dead, is not just an interesting new religious founder with a few new theological ideas. Paul tells them that Jesus is none other than the creator and sustainer of all things (verses 16-17), and more than that: that he is God's way of setting right absolutely everything that has gone wrong in the world since the beginning of history (verse 20)! In Christ, Paul says, God takes the ultimate step to fulfill all the promises made to Israel—promises that one day, in a pure act of grace, he will forgive all sins, completely and universally, and make all things new (see Apg 13,32-33; 3,20-21; Jes 43,19; Offb21,5; Röm 8,19-21).

Only the Christian

“But salvation is intended only for Christians,” howl the fundamentalists. Certainly that is true. But who are “the Christians”? Is it just those who parrot a standard repentance and conversion prayer? Is it only those baptized by immersion? Is it only those who belong to the "true church"? Only those who attain absolution through a duly ordained priest? Only those who have stopped sinning? (Did you make it? I didn't.) Only those who come to know Jesus before they die? Or does Jesus himself—in whose nail-pierced hands God placed judgment—ultimately make the decision as to who belongs to those whom he shows grace? And once he is there: Does he, who has overcome death and who can give eternal life as a gift to whomever he wants, decide when he makes someone believe, or do we meet, the all-wise defenders of the true religion , this decision in his stead?
Every Christian, at some point, became a Christian, meaning they were led to faith by the Holy Spirit. The fundamentalist position, however, seems to be that it is impossible for God to bring a person to faith after their death. But wait – Jesus is the one who raises the dead. And he is the one who is the atoning sacrifice, not only for our sins, but for those of the whole world. (1Joh 2,2).

Great gap

“But the parable of Lazarus,” some will object. “Doesn’t Abraham say that between his side and the rich man’s side there is a great, unbridgeable chasm?” (See Lk 16,19-31.)

Jesus did not intend this parable to be understood as a photographic depiction of life after death. How many Christians would describe heaven as "Abraham's bosom," a place where Jesus is nowhere to be seen? The parable is a message to the privileged class of first-century Judaism, not a portrait of life after the resurrection. Before we read more into it than Jesus intended, let's compare it to what Paul says in Römer 11,32 schreibt.

The rich man in the parable is still unrepentant. He still sees himself as superior in rank and class to Lazarus. He still sees Lazarus only as someone who exists to serve him. Perhaps it is reasonable to assume that it was the rich man's continued unbelief that made the gap so unbridgeable, not some arbitrary cosmic necessity. Let us remember: Jesus himself, and only he, closes the otherwise unbridgeable gap between our sinful state and reconciliation with God. Jesus underscores this point, this message of the parable—that salvation comes only through faith in him—when he says: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Lk 16,31).

God intends to lead people to salvation, not to torture them. Jesus is the reconciler, and whether we believe it or not, he fulfills his task admirably. He is the Savior of the world. (Joh 3,17)He is not the savior of a fraction of the world. “For God so loved the world” (verse 16) – and not just one person in a thousand. God has ways, and his ways are higher than our ways.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: “Love your enemies.” (Mt 5,43)It can be safely assumed that he loved his enemies. Or are we supposed to believe that Jesus hates his enemies, yet demands love of our enemies, and that his hatred provides the explanation for the existence of hell? That would be utterly absurd. Jesus calls us to love our enemies because he himself possesses this love. "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!" was his intercession for those who crucified him. (Lk 23,34).

Certainly, those who reject Jesus' grace even after experiencing it will ultimately reap the fruits of their folly. For those who refuse to come to the Lamb's Supper, there is no place but utter darkness (one of the figurative expressions Jesus uses to describe the state of alienation from God, of being far from God; see Matthäus 22,13; 25,30).

Mercy for all

In Romans 11:32, Paul makes the astonishing statement: “For God has bound everyone to disobedience so that he may have mercy on everyone.” Indeed, the original Greek word refers to all, not some, but all. All are sinners, and in Christ, mercy is shown to all—whether they like it or not; whether they accept it or not; whether they experience it before death or not.

What more can be said of this revelation than what Paul says in the next verses: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments and inscrutable his ways! For 'who has known the mind of the Lord, or who was his counselor?' Or 'who gave him something before that God should reward him?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. Glory be to him forever! Amen” (verses 33-36).

Yes, so unfathomable are his ways that many of us Christians simply can not believe that the gospel can be so good. And some of us seem to know God's thought so well that we just know that anyone who is not a Christian at death is going straight to hell. Paul, on the other hand, wants to make it clear that the indescribable extent of divine grace is simply unfathomable to us - a mystery that only reveals itself in Christ: in Christ, God has done something that transcends the human horizon of knowledge.

In his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, Paul tells us that God intended this from the beginning. (Eph 1,9-10)It was the underlying reason for Abraham's calling, for the election of Israel and David, for the covenants (3:5-6). God also saves the "strangers" and non-Israelites (2:12). He even saves the wicked. (Röm 5,6)He literally draws everyone to himself. (Joh 12,32)Throughout world history, God's Son has been working "in the background" from the very beginning, carrying out his work of redemption by reconciling all things with God. (Kol 1,15-20)God's grace has its own unique logic, a logic that often seems illogical to religiously minded people.

The only way to salvation

In short: Jesus is the only way to salvation, and he draws absolutely everyone to himself—in his own way, in his own time. It would be helpful to consider a fact that is actually beyond the grasp of the human mind: One can be nowhere in the universe except in Christ, because, as Paul says, there is nothing that was not created by him and does not exist in him. (Kol 1,15-17)The people who ultimately reject him do so despite his love; it is not Jesus who rejects them (he does not – he loves them, died for them and forgave them), but they who reject him.

CS Lewis put it this way: “In the end there are only two kinds of people: those who say to God 'Thy will be done' and those to whom God says 'Thy will be done' at the end. Those who are in hell have chosen this fate for themselves. Without this self-determination there could be no hell. No soul that sincerely and consistently seeks joy will fail. He who searches will find. To him that knocks it shall be opened” (The Great Divorce, chapter 9). (1)

Heroes in hell?

When I heard Christians preaching about the meaning of 9/11, I thought of the heroic firefighters and police officers who sacrificed their lives trying to rescue people from the burning World Trade Center. How can this be reconciled: that Christians call these rescuers heroes and applaud their self-sacrifice, but on the other hand declare that if they hadn't confessed their faith in Christ before their deaths, they would now be tormented in hell?

The Gospel explains that there is hope for all who lost their lives in the World Trade Center without having previously confessed Christ. It is the risen Lord whom they will meet after death, and he is the Judge—he, with the nail holes in his hands—eternal, ready to embrace and receive all his creatures who come to him. He forgave them even before they were born (Eph 1,4; Röm 5,6 and 10). That part is done, also for us who believe now. Those who stand before Jesus now only have to lay their crowns in front of the throne and accept his gift. Some may not do it. Perhaps they are so ingrained in self-love and hatred of others that they will see the risen Lord as their archenemy. It is more than a shame, it is a catastrophe of cosmic proportions because he is not your archenemy. Because he loves her, anyway. Because he wants to gather her in his arms like a hen her chicks, if they only let him.

But we may – if we Römer 14,11 and Philipper 2,10 believe - assume that the vast majority of the people who died in that terrorist attack will happily rush into Jesus 'arms like children into their parents' arms.

Jesus saves

“Jesus saves,” Christians write on their posters and stickers. It’s true. He does. And he is the author and perfecter of salvation, the origin and goal of all creation, of all creatures, even the dead. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, Jesus says. He sent him to save the world. (Joh 3,16-17).

Regardless of what some say: God wants to save absolutely all people. (1Tim 2,4; 2Pt 3,9)Not just a select few. And what else you need to know—He never gives up. He never stops loving. He never stops being what He was, is, and always will be for humanity—their Creator and Reconciler. No one falls through the cracks. No one was created to go to hell. Should someone nevertheless end up in hell—in that small, meaningless, dark, nowhere corner of the kingdom of eternity—it will be solely because they stubbornly refuse to accept the grace God has in store for them. And not because God hates them (He doesn't). Not because God is vengeful (He isn't). But because 1) they hate the kingdom of God and reject His grace, and 2) because God doesn't want them to spoil the joy of others.

Positive message

The gospel is a message of hope for absolutely everyone. Christian ministers do not have to use threats of hell to force people to convert to Christ. You can just tell the truth, the good news: "God loves you. He's not mad at you. Jesus died for you because you are a sinner, and God loves you so much that he saved you from all that is destroying you. Then why do you want to go on living like there is nothing but the dangerous, cruel, unpredictable and unforgiving world that you have? Why don't you come and start experiencing God's love and tasting the blessings of His kingdom? You already belong to him. He has already served your sin penalty. He will turn your sorrow into joy. He will give you inner peace like you have never known. He will bring meaning and direction to your life. He will help you improve your relationships. He will give you rest. trust him He is waiting for you."

The message is so good that it practically overflows from us. In Römer 5,10-11 Paul writes: “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

The ultimate of hope! The ultimate of grace! Through Christ's death, God reconciles his enemies and saves them by Christ's life. No wonder we can boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ - through Him we already participate in what we tell other people. They do not have to go on living as if they have no place on God's table; he has already reconciled them, they can go home, they can go home.

Christ saves sinners. That's really good news. The best that can ever be heard by man.

by J. Michael Feazell