Does God Punish Us for What We Believe?

In recent months I have become increasingly aware of a problem many Christians are creating which is keeping them from reaching the irreligious who otherwise might be very open to the gospel message. Christians are giving unbelievers wrong ideas about God, salvation, and judgment, the primary messages of Christianity, by responding to the question, “why do I need Jesus?” with the answer, “If you don’t believe in Jesus you will go to hell.”

What’s the problem with this statement? Isn’t it true? Well…Yes and no.

When Christians hear the phrase, “If you don’t believe in Jesus you will go to hell,” there are a lot of other things that come packaged with it, salvation by grace, mercy, justice, etc. When a non-Christian hears that phrase they hear that God is capricious, caring more about what you believe than what you do. This is a major stumbling block for non-Christians considering Christianity, and it’s a completely unnecessary one if only Christians would be more careful in how they communicate the Gospel. The gospel is offensive enough without Christ’s followers adding to the offense with badly chosen words.

So how should we communicate the truth of “If you don’t believe in Jesus you go hell,” in a more effective, more precise manner?

We need to understand the Gospel better. While it’s true that those who don’t believe in Jesus will go to hell, their lack of belief is not the reason they go there. People go to hell because of their moral transgressions against God. While it is true that those who die without Christ will face judgment and hell, it is not one’s beliefs that earn hell, but one’s actions. God does not judge based on belief, He judges and condemns those standing before Him based on their rebellion and moral criminality. It is only because of the grace of God offered through Christ, that I and other Christians can receive the mercy of God, which we have not earned and don’t deserve.

We Christians have failed in communicating the need for Jesus to the unbelieving world. We have gotten so caught up in talking about Christianity with other Christians that many of us have forgotten that non-Christians don’t understand our buzzwords; and speaking “christianese” confuses them at best and gives them the wrong impressions about what God really does and offers at worst.