Today's Devotional

October 10, 2003

Subject:  No Excuses

Romans 1:20 - "From the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made.  As a result, people have no excuse."

I had that world-famous question in the office this week from a nonbeliever.  You know, the one that goes like this...,"You mean to tell me that God is going to send people from the farthest corner of earth to hell who never heard of Jesus?"  I'm sure you've all heard that or had that issue face you before.

The reality of the answer is that God doesn't send anybody anywhere.  He created us with the freedom of choice so we freely choose our destination based on our beliefs.  So when the verse above says that no one has an excuse, it includes people who we think are in the farthest reaches of this planet.  Of course what's the farthest reach of this planet to God?  That's nothing to Him.  

Here's how it works.  God says that the creation itself was made to reveal God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature.  The sun, the moon, the stars, the oceans, the mountains were all created to make us yearn to know more about this great Creator.  This is the light of creation that we have been given.  It was given so that we may know God and seek Him out.  Everyone is given this light although perhaps not in equal amounts.  Those with little light will be judged according to how they used the light they were given.  Likewise, those given much light, such as we receive in the U.S. and western civilizations, will be judged based on that amount of light.  Remember, "to whom much is given, much is required." However, the problem is as John writes in 3:19, "that men loved darkness rather than light."  

So the problem and answer is not that God sends people to hell because they never heard of Jesus.  Their hell-bound state could only be attributed to the same thing our hell-bound state can be attributed to - not that we didn't see the light, but that we didn't pursue the light that we were given.

I've heard people say that Jesus couldn't return today because the whole world has not heard of Him.  Don't be fooled, no man has an excuse, even today. 

Carlen