God's Call

Yesterday I read an article on a blog page about the existence of hell and Universalism. “Universalism says that everyone will be saved.” This leads, of course, to the idea that there is no hell. I could not agree more with the author of the article when he said that there really is a hell and that there might even be some religious people in hell. As I read further down in the article, I was shocked at the following statement:

“…we can fully affirm the reality of hell, but it's not up to us to decide who goes there. Indeed, I wonder if it is really up to God as well. Yes, being the all powerful one, and the Almighty judge, he is the one who consigns souls to hell, but it is also true that we choose Hell.

The author went on to discuss how we make the choice to go to Heaven or Hell, it really isn't up to God. It was the statement, “I wonder if it is really up to God as well.” That jumped out at me. In all fairness to the writer, he was making a point about our choice to follow God or not (a point to which I beg to differ). He was not making a comment about the character of God. What his statement did do, however, was bring his argument to the logical conclusion. That is, if we actually have a choice in the matter, if we can really choose to be saved (and it is not the working of Spirit of God in our hearts first), then God is merely sitting up in Heaven waiting for us to make up our minds. When we have decided what we want, then God will pass judgment.

In my mind, this idea lessens the greatness and character of our God, and it also diminishes the work of Jesus on the cross. If all a person has to do is chose to go to Heaven, then what is the point in the atonement? If we could change ourselves and decide to be good, then there would have been no need for Christ to die on the cross, and God is just sitting up there in Heaven with His hands tied behind His back waiting patiently.

I’m sorry, but I don’t see God that way. He is the Almighty Father, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the I Am, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is intimately involved in the affairs of men, both His children and the lost. When He calls, we come. When His Spirit breathes on us, we answer, and that is why we chose Him at all. He is not sitting up in Heaven wringing His hands hoping that some will chose to come to Him, or even, as the writer suggested that God is just waiting around to consign souls to hell.

The Spirit of God through the apostle Paul has this to say to us (note the highlighted words):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10)

Salvation was His idea and His plan from beginning to end, even down to His choosing us. I am thankful that it was He who called me, and not me who chose Him, because I would never had come to Him otherwise.