by Kevin Burton
Say to me LeBron James is the best basketball player ever. Wrong. Tell me mayonnaise in any form is anything other than an affront to the senses (all of them). Wrong.
Tell me dogs are more loving than cats and I’ll tell you that you’re measuring love in terms of volume of slobber, and you’re wrong.
I’m having a little fun with you of course. You can start your own blog and post your own mayonnaise manifesto.
You have the right to be wrong, but be careful.
One of my college friends, a colleague from my college newspaper, shared a post on Facebook recently that had too much truth to ignore. It illustrates the difference between wrong and dead wrong.
The post mentioned some common beliefs that are floating around. They may seem good or sound good. They may square with a picture you would prefer to be right. But they are wrong.
And we’re not merely talking Lebron over Michael Jordan wrong, although that is very, very wrong. We’re talking about dead wrong, and we’re talking about eternity.
Here’s the post:
“People who die, young or old, don’t become angels. Not everyone who dies goes to heaven. Jesus said there would be few in Matt. 7:14. Dad may pray for you, but Dad can’t put you in heaven. Being baptized won’t get you into heaven. A minister may speak at your funeral, but a minister can’t preach you into heaven.” Doing a lot of good things is great but won’t gain access.”
“There’s only one way for your journey on earth to end well. ‘Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ John 14:6.”
Repent of your sin, believe on Jesus. Follow Him and leave this world clinging to Him in faith, knowing he has you in His hands. His grace is sufficient, Trust Him!”
See what I mean between the difference between wrong and dead wrong?
Here’s another one. It’s a myth that makes sense to the natural man:
I was trying to witness to a pen pal from Florida. I asked her how one gets to heaven. She said that God weighs our works on earth and those who do more good things than bad go to heaven and those who do more bad things go to hell.
You’ve probably heard that one before. That myth doesn’t hold up under human or heavenly scrutiny. In human terms, what we say is a good thing, God, or even another person, may or may not consider good. Beyond that, it turns salvation into a human test and makes us the arbiters of it, seeing as though we can obligate God to take us to heaven by piling up good works.
Seen from the heavenly realm, our good works are not good at all. The sin nature we are born into means without God’s intervention we have no way to make the grade. None. Our works are not even a little bit good in the eternal sense.
Those relying on their own works should read Isaiah 64:6: (NKJV) “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.”
We are in desperate need of God’s righteousness from Romans 3; 21-23:
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
In the 90s several friends and acquaintances, and even my dad, knew me to ask incessantly, the question “based on what.” I would enter conversations about theology, hear what a person had to say and ask “based on what are you saying that?”
At great, great length I finally got my dad to admit he was basing what he said on “my own intuition” as he put it.
We have seen today that this method doesn’t work.
I can see you reaching for Pepsi and say you’re “wrong” as I enjoy my superior Dr. Pepper.
Getting the gospel wrong or not responding properly to it, makes you wrong in this life and dead wrong in the next life.
I pray your ears and heart will be open not to me and my words, but to the God who made you and wants to save you.
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