Several years ago I was watching a television show in which a man was seeking to illustrate how anyone—regardless of how evil they might have been—can go to heaven.
A young man who was having a hard time understanding the concept of a murderer going to heaven, asked a question:
“So you are saying that the Nazi soldier who gassed my grandmother at the German death camps under Hitler can be forgiven by God?”
The host told him, “yes of course. Anyone can be saved by the sacrifice that Jesus has made on the cross for all sins.”[1]
“But what if my grandmother never received Jesus as her savior, what if she refused to accept his offer of salvation.”
The host continued: “Unfortunately, she would be lost forever.”[2]
The young man, now quite angry, began to speak again: “Do you mean to say that a Nazi butcher who tortured my dear grandmother, then threw her into a furnace and burned her to death, can go to heaven; but my grandmother, who never hurt a sole, who never said an unkind word about anyone in her life, will go to hell, if she does not receive Jesus Christ?”
The host answered, “Yes that is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ says.”[3]
The young man replied: “That is why I would never believe in the God that you believe in.”
You see, the problem is that the young man does not understand the principle of salvation by grace that God has set forth for all people.
1. All human beings are lost in their sins, with no hope of redemption.[4]
2. God sent Jesus into the world to pay for our sins—all of them.[5]
3. Any person who receives Jesus’ offer of forgiveness, has eternal life.[6]
4. Any person who rejects Jesus’ offer of forgiveness, will be lost forever.[7]
Going to heaven is not a reward for being a good person; it is not an achievement than a person can earn by being good enough. Salvation is based upon what Jesus has done for us and nothing else.[8]
No person deserves eternal life. God was under no obligation to save any one of us. When the angels disobeyed God and were lost, there was no plan of salvation offered to any one of them.
God has chosen salvation only for the descendants of Adam. He has defined the terms of this salvation and left the results to us. If we obey Him and receive Jesus, we will be saved. If we rebel against God and refuse to accept the pardon for our sins that He has offered through Jesus Christ, there remains no other method, by which, we can be saved.
The sins of the young man’s grandmother, as well as the sins of the executioner who killed her, were equal in the view of God. All sins separate us from God.[9] Both the grandmother and her murderer deserved death and eternal separation from God. If they chose to accept God’s offer of salvation, both could be saved. Since the grandmother refused to accept Jesus’ offer of salvation and the murderer accepted Jesus’ offer, one was saved, the other was lost.[10]
Anyone Regardless of What They Have Done Can Be Saved.[11]
Even the best and most kind hearted person who has done good all of their life, is still a sinner—in need of a Savior.[12]
If the murderer is willing to humble himself and is sincerely sorry for his sins; if he will come to Jesus in genuine sorrow and request His pardon, he will go to heaven.[13]
If the dear grandmother refuses to humble herself before God and accept Jesus’ death for her sins as the only solution for her salvation, she will not obtain the forgiveness of her sins and she will miss her opportunity for eternal life.[14]
This is the beauty of God’s salvation: All people are equal before God. All people are sinners. There is none that is worse than any other. Any person who will humble themselves and be truly sorry for their sins, can find salvation.
The only people who will not make it to heaven, are those who will not do what God requires: Place themselves under the sacrifice that Jesus came to earth to make possible. Jesus suffered horrendous torture, to pay for our sins. He will grant forgiveness to any sincere person who repents and receives Him as their Savior.
Jesus Died For The World. Jesus Paid For The Sins Of Every Person For All Time.[15]
In order to appropriate this forgiveness, a person must ask God for it. It would be wrong for God to force a person to be saved. God has done the hard work of making salvation possible. Then He held redemption out to us as a gift to the whole world.[16]
Unfortunately, a majority of people will not accept God’s offer. The greater number of people who have lived upon the earth, refuse to humble themselves before God. People love their sins, more than they love God. [17] People are prideful, self sufficient, and they like the life they have chosen. They do not want to be told what to do by anyone who will condemn them for the way they live, and the choices they make.
People believe that God doesn’t care about how they live their life. They are wrong, He does care. This is why God allowed His Son to become one of us and die for our sins.[18]
We see how much God hates sin, in that only Jesus’ death could remove our sins. We see how much God love us in that God was willing to give His Son to die for us.[19]
- We Must Have A Personal Relationship With Jesus And Make A Decision For Christ For Salvation
- There is No Salvation, Without Repentance
- Why Salvation is a Free Gift
- Salvation Without Baptism, Altar Call, or Church Membership
- After Death, There is No Second Chance of Salvation
NOTES:
[1] Romans 10:13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
[2] Acts 4:12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…
[3] Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins
Luke 13:3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
[4] 1. Psalms 14:3 They have all turned aside,They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Ephesians 2:12 that at that time you were without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world. Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[5] 2. John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 1John 2:2 And Jesus Himself is the payment for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
[6] 3. Acts 16:30-31 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
[7] 4. John 3:18 “He who believes in Jesus is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
[8] Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
[9] Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
[10] John 5:40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
[11] Romans 3:22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.
John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
Mark 3:28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter.
[12] Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[13] Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:“I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
[14] James 4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
[15] Luke 19:10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
[16] 2Corinthians 6:2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
[17] John 3:19-20 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
[18] Matthew 12:36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
1Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment
[19] 1John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
1John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Categories: Controversy, Errors of the Christian Church, Following Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, How Salvation Occurs, Not understanding salvation, Salvation through Jesus, The Condition of the Heart
Robert Clifton Robinson 
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