On the Wrong Tract

I received a tract from someone at church the other day about focusing on the theory of evolution. The tract was interesting, but there was something in the tract that I couldn't quite agree with regarding what happens when a person dies. "If there is a God, what will happen when you die? The Bible says God has a standard that He will judge you on your appointed day of death. It's called the Ten Commandments." I am the first to agree that the law is for those who are lost and not in Christ. The purpose of the law is to show a person they're are dead in sin so that they will turn to Christ by faith to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. However, my understanding of scripture is not one that says that on Judgement Day, to use a popular phrase, God is going to run down the Ten Commandments in an effort to an unbeliever, on anybody for that matter, that they are a sinner. When any of us go before God, He is going to look at one thing. Are we dead or alive?

Jesus asked His disciples who the people were saying about Him. There were various responses, all of them good, but none of them correct. Then the following exchange occurred, ""But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:15-16)." Peter was correct. Jesus was the Son of the living God. In another part of scripture it says that God is not the God of the dead, but the of the living. Salvation is the restoration of the life of God, lost in Adam, restored to a believer at the time of their acceptance of Christ by faith. When we stand before God, He is not going to pull out the Ten Commandments and ask us questions in order to determine if we have successfully kept them our entire lives. He already knows the answer to that question. We didn't keep them. Like Jesus asking His disciples who they say He was, God is only going to ask us, "What did you do with My Son?" Of course, He will already know the answer. Believers, those who are alive in Christ, will be escorted into Heaven to spend eternity with God. While unbelievers, those dead to God in sin, will be sent to Hell for a Christless eternity.

By the time a person is dead and standing in front of God their eternal destination has been determined. Later on after surmising that by God's standards we would fail miserably, the tract asks if we go will to Heaven or Hell? The answer is obvious. Now, while I agree with the intent of the tract to show us our sinfulness so that we will turn to Christ, to begin the tract by saying we will be judged by this when we die is a heartbeat too late. Thankfully, the tract, if read, will be read by someone who is obviously not dead. Therefore, this little discrepancy would not be an issue. However, it must be emphasized that people will go to Hell not because they fail to realize that they are sinners and need God to quiz them. People go to Hell because they are dead to God in sin and already under His wrath. The Bible says that "whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:18)." Unbelievers are already headed to hell because they are dead. This goes right back to God judging people on whether they are dead or alive to Him, not if they recognize that they don't meet His standards of perfection.

The Gospel is message is sin, death, forgiveness, life. Adam sinned, died spiritually, God forgave in Christ and restored His life through the resurrection. He uses the law to show people their spiritual death so they will turn to Christ for life. Once you're physically dead, it is too late for the law to do its work in you. It is time for you to face the wrath of God. No man will be standing in front of God with the excuse that they didn't know they were sinners. They go there because they didn't believe in Jesus. Period. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him (John 3:36)." Once again, the dividing line between Heaven and Hell is death and life. This is the reason that Christ is the only way to the Father in Heaven. He is the only one who had a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for our sins. And, thus, He was the only one that, raised from the dead, could offer the life of God back to all who believe in Him. Let's use the Ten Commandments, and the entire law, for what it is for. That is to reveal our need for a Savior. Let us not, however, misapply it as though God will use it to prove our need for one when their is no more provision left to accept.