Lesson 21
God uses those who reject him to demonstrate to others, who is in control. God is sovereign over all. He will give everyone a fair opportunity to accept Jesus and receive eternal life. Those who knowingly reject Jesus and life will get the only other option, death. They won’t live a life of eternal torment, as that requires life. To reject Jesus and God is to reject life, which only leaves death. After the final battle, those who fight against God will become ashes under the feet of God’s saints.
John 3:16 Complete Jewish Bible
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed.
Malachi 4:1-3 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
1 For behold, the day comes that shall burn like an oven, and all the proud and arrogant, yes, and all that do wickedly and are lawless, shall be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and His beams, and you shall go forth and gambol like calves [released] from the stall and leap for joy. 3 And you shall tread down the lawless and wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts.
God is not pleased to lose any of his potential children to death. His desire is that all should choose a life of love, a life with him and Jesus. As with Israel he wants us to choose him. Why is Satan released to influence the people who were living without him? Can we make a choice between good and evil if there is no evil? Can we know for sure we will always follow God if we have not been tested? In what ways was Jesus tested? How have you been tested? Have you overcome to the end?
2 Peter 3:8-10 The Message
8-9 Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change. 10 But when the Day of God’s Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a raging inferno, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment.
Deuteronomy 30:19 King James Version
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: