Eternal Optimist

“Does God give up on some people? Is anyone too bad for God to forgive?” Good questions.

Those are some of the concerns a reader of this column shared with me in a letter recently. How would you answer those questions? What hope could you offer him or her?

Thankfully God is the eternal optimist. He won’t give up on you until you give up on him. And even then he will wait for you to come to him until the day you die. As the Bible says, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.”

“Now hold on just a minute,” you may say. “The Bible? Why refer to an old book like that?”

Because it is the only book with answers to questions like this--answers that work every time they’re tried. The God of the Bible cares about us too much to play games with our souls.

What if you’ve prayed and asked for forgiveness but don’t feel forgiven?

Feelings of guilt are appropriate when we know we’ve done wrong. But when we come to Christ for forgiveness, the Bible says we are forgiven and our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west. If we still feel guilty it’s because we trust our feelings and don’t yet believe God’s Word when it says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

The reader also wondered if God really forgives sinners, no matter what they’ve done.

The Bible says we’ve all sinned and broken God’s Law. And the penalty for ‘little sins’ is the same as for big ones. So if God didn’t forgive sinners, then no one could be forgiven. The good news is that forgiveness is offered to all, regardless of what’s been done. Salvation is a free gift.

Since no one meets God’s standard of perfection, God offers forgiveness based on Jesus’ perfect life. So when we trust in him, his righteousness is credited to us. He lived the life we should live. And when he died on the cross, he received the punishment we deserve for our sins.

Reading the Bible can clear up many other questions that people have, as well.

For instance, one person thought Jesus said, “It is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a thief to go to heaven.” But what Jesus actually said is that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

This shocked Jesus listeners because they thought riches could get you into heaven. But Jesus said the journey begins with humility and a willingness to trust in God and not in money.

In fact the only sin that will keep you out of the Kingdom of God is continuing unbelief. And even that can be forgiven if you will humble yourself and come to God through Jesus Christ.

It is not the church that saves you or forgives you. It is God who forgives and so he sets the conditions. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Notice that it doesn’t say, “You MIGHT be saved.” It says, “You WILL be saved.” And the Bible adds, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” God will do what he says.

No one is too bad to be saved and no one is good enough to be saved. Since forgiveness from sin and eternal life are gifts from God, both the bad person and the good person are saved from sin the same way: By faith in God’s Word and in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So the next time you feel like God doesn’t love you—stop and remind yourself that God is the eternal optimist. He is patiently waiting for you to come to him through faith in Jesus Christ. He welcomed the thief on the cross and, dear reader, he will welcome and pardon you.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!