“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”.
(2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).
The above text tells us that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God is never happy when a soul perishes.
To perish is to be destroyed violently. The ultimate destruction is in hell fire. Those that end up in hell are separated from God forever. God originally prepared the everlasting fire for devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Also, those who reject the gospel that is the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ (Matt. 10:14-15, John 3:16). Hell is a place of intensive suffering and gnashing of teeth. Words will fail to describe the severity of hell. It is a place you will never wish for yourself or loved ones – even you will never wish it for your enemies if you understand what hell means.
Jesus told a story of a certain man in Lk. 16.19-30, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury. When this man died, he found himself in hell. And being in torment in hell he lifted up his eyes and saw father Abraham together with Lazarus, a beggar that was coming to his gate to beg for help while he was alive in paradise. He pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and come over to him and to drop it into his mouth to cool his tongue; for he was tormented in the flame. Abraham refused but reminded him that in his life time he received good things and Lazarus evil things.
Then he said, I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house for I have five brothers that he may testify to them lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets let them hear them. That means that they have the Bible – the Word of God and the preachers of the Word of God with them. If they do not repent even if someone comes from the grave to preach to them they will not repent.
Friend, are you related to this rich man biologically or attitudinally (or character wise)? Pause a while and ask yourself why did Lazarus end up in paradise? Is it because he was poor? We must understand the essence of this story Jesus told so that we can learn lessons for our lives.
I want to say emphatically that the rich man did not land in hell because he was rich neither did Lazarus go to heaven because he was poor. The rich man went to hell because he misused the talents and privileges that God graciously gave him. From the way he was arguing with father Abraham in the story, I could see he was an intelligent and an articulate man apart from the wealth God blessed him with; but he wasted all these divine resources for selfish living. Even the beggars like Lazarus who came across his life were not helped.
By comparison, Abraham was far wealthier than the rich man in hell. If you take time to study the life of Abraham in the Bible you will discover for yourself that Abraham indeed was very rich, yet he is in heaven now. What made the difference? Abraham chose to live a simple life while he was investing the bulk of his wealth in training men and women. We are told that he raised three hundred and eighteen well trained men in his house. These were the men Abraham used to deliver his nephew Lot who was living in Sodom, when he was taken captive.
On the other hand, Lazarus did not end up in heaven with Abraham because he was poor, but because he did not choose to misbehave despite his poverty and physical challenge. He could have chosen to steal or misbehave because of his poverty like many are doing and blaming it on their poor condition in life. It was better for Lazarus to beg rather than to steal or misbehave. To beg is not a sin but stealing or misbehaving is a sin. There are many who are misbehaving because of their poor condition. But Lazarus did not, that is why he is not perishing in hell now but in heaven.
I would like to ask you reader some questions, please permit me before you read on. What are you doing with the talents and privileges God has given you in mercy? May be you are intelligent or clever, may be you are very beautiful or handsome, may be you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth, may be you are strong and healthy or very powerful. What are you using these divine resources to do? Are you using your God given intelligence to device crafty ways for example to cheat in exams instead of studying hard to know your subject well and invent things that will help humanity? Are you using your beauty or being handsome to indulge in fornication and immorality instead of keeping yourself pure for your life partner? Are you using your strength and energy that God has given you to bully and oppress the weak instead of channeling it into useful ventures? If you were born into a wealthy home what are you using that privilege for? Is it to intimidate and humiliate your less privileged peers or to assist them? If on the other hand you see yourself like Lazarus – disadvantaged – physically or mentally, is that the reason you are now cheating, or stealing or misbehaving generally?
Perhaps searching your heart you find you are not using your situation in life to the glory of God and you want a change and you are saying within you, how can I escape perishing in hell? There is hope for you because God does not want you to perish. He has graciously provided a way of escape.
THE WAY OF ESCAPE
The first consolation for you and me is that God is “not willing that any should perish”. If God is not willing that any should perish, where is the way of escape HE has provided?
Repentance:
What is repentance? I will use Psalms 32:5 to explain it. “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Repentance simply means to acknowledge your sin to God and not to make an excuse for your sin. Do not hide your iniquity from God, but confess your transgressions to the Lord. Pro. 28:13 further explains “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” And we are assured that “if we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we confess and repent from our sins and receive or believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we become children of God. (Jn. 1:12). We are said to be born again. and like newborn babies you need the sincere milk of the Word of God that will enable you to grow. (1 Pet. 2:2). This growth is to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that you will not be tossed to and fro and be carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men. (Eph. 4:11-16). This is called Christian discipleship. To make your growth in Christian discipleship rapid, you need to pray to God to guide you to a mature Christian discipler that will sit with you (not on you) and guide you in the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is very important because those who are untaught and unstable twist the Scripture to their own destruction, Peter the Apostle warned in 2 Pet. 3:16.
In conclusion, the will of God is that no one should perish but all should come to repentance, whether you are privileged like the rich man or disadvantaged like Lazarus, you can be saved. Jesus promised to give rest to those who are tired of sin. Matt. 11:28 and those who come to Him, He will never drive away. Take advantage of Jesus’ invitation to you and you will never perish.