The people were searching for Jesus more so to be feed again, just as they had the day before. Perhaps appearing to be spiritual they asked Jesus in John’s gospel 6:28, “…..What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” The response from Jesus was simple, yet profound and probably very strange for this community of Jewish people who heard all their lives, “thou shalt do and thou shalt not do…..,”
These Hebrews learned early in life strict adherence to the Mosaic Law which included the moral law; the ten commandments. So when Jesus response was, “….This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent,” that must have sent shock waves through all of Jerusalem. Jesus was bringing in the new kingdom, which was an old kingdom but one missed by the people. Instead of an eye for an eye, it’s love your enemies and do good to them. A rich young man came to Jesus and ask a very similar question.
The Rich Young Ruler must have thought he was a shoo-in for God's kingdom, but instead he walked away sad. His first misconception, one Jesus immediately set him straight on was, "...no one is good but God." This is perhaps the most common mistake from most of the world. Most believe if they could just be good enough or just do that one something it would secure their assurance of salvation. This Rich Young Ruler may not have realized he broke the first commandment; love the LORD thy God with all your heart and love thy neighbor as thyself. Giving up all that he had to thy neighbor and following Jesus would have demonstrated works of faith and his love for God more than his love for wealth.
Did you see the what must "we do," from the people and what shall "I do," from the rich young ruler? The "I's" of our Father, Adam. Jesus response couldn't have been more simple and straight forward; simply "believe!" In the books of Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, the authors spend a great deal of time emphasizing the difference between 'works of the flesh' or 'law keeping' verses 'works of faith' and the 'promised works of the Spirit.' God calls the first, which is self effort an "evil heart of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:12). The chosen people of God were given the law by Moses, but it didn’t provide atonement; ceremonial sacrifices did. The purpose of the law served as a check and balance, a guardianship, and a way to show our need for a Savior. I once heard someone say, "If God had not instituted the law, there would not have been a virgin for Christ's birth."
So God has responsed to our mess, and now it's our turn to respond appropriately and accurately to God's call that says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me," - Revelation 3:20. Our part is really easy, but it's also the road less traveled by most. Excuse me for using I, but I believe the reason is two-fold; (1) Fear of God due to a misunderstanding of who God is and what He's really like, and (2) The "I's" of pride, both of which are rooted in the Adam-ic nature which ultimately originates from Satan's strategy of lies and deception. Everything we need in order to pull down these misconceptions of God and to agree with what God says to What We Became, is found in His love letter and instruction manual He left for us to read. Funny thing, even to this day, the bible is still the number one sold book in the world and the least read. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear (reverence) the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones." (Proverbs 3:5-8).
Our Response to God's Response is pretty much laid out for us in the book of Romans written by the Apostle Paul and said to be by most theologians, "the masterpiece of all the bible." In David Jeremiah's Study Bible on page 1542 under his commentary section for Romans 1:17, he writes: "....Salvaton only works by faith, which is itself a gift from God. Rightly understood, the truths in Romans can revive right thinking and result in right living." The heart of the matter is found in Romans 10:8 which says, “....The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): ..." Embedded in the word itself is faith to believe God. You don't have to search for it, it's near you and in you, it's a gift from God.
So let's go deeper into Our appropriate Response to God's Response and His call to receive first His mercy followed by an abundance of grace, peace and rest for our weary souls, because "...where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - (Romans 5:20-21.)
There's more to this scripture; "...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," than I realized prior. We often refer to this scripture as one that tells us the more we hear the word, the more faith we get. I'm not sure that's what this scripture is saying. James epistle writes, "...faith without works is dead?" A woman shared with me she had been in the church every week for 40 years before she realized she was not born again. She heard scripture every week, so what happen? I now believe faith is demonstrated and perhaps thereby grows as we use it. I don't need a lot of faith. Jesus said all I need is faith the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain; What I need is a lot of truth to castdown all the lies I've been hearing all my life, and it's the truth that makes me free. If we keep the scripture above in context, it is simply saying no one has to search high or low to believe the gospel. When presented, embedded in it is the 'word of faith' to believe it. It's near and in your mouth.
Embedded within the truth of the gospel is faith—the belief in the gospel. I believe the order of salvation is as follows: first, God calls us, and everyone is called. Then, the gospel of Christ is shared with the hearer. As the hearer listens, faith is transmitted by the power of God through the word of the gospel, leading to belief. Subsequently, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Confession is made to salvation. As the Apostle Paul states,"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise," (Ephesians 1:13). Despite attending church for years growing up, I don’t recall ever hearing the gospel.
I was baptized as a child, but I never comprehended the concept of being born again. Rod and Ron shared the gospel with me, and then the Holy Spirit alone convicted me of my sins. Weeping, believing, and agreeing led to my confession. Those who are guided by the Spirit of God are children of God. I don’t believe it’s the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel to people. Sharing the gospel is the task given to God’s children.
Except for God sculpting humanity and the animals from the earth, God spoke everything into existence through the Word. Consequently, we, as His creations, inherit the power to speak and hear words. Begin to tell a child they're stupid long enough and that child will begin to believe it.
Without the Spirit of God guiding a person in truth, the unregenerated person can not understand the things of God, for they are spiritual discerned. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:12-14) The adam-ic natural man, without the help of the Holy Spirit will inevitably misinterpret the word of God and find themselves in trouble if it's not sought with the right intentions.
One religous organization's founder did just that and determined only 144,000 people would be saved, but after the organization obtained 144,000 members, it had to change their foolish beliefs. I talked with a young man once at the recreation center where I work out, and he, unregenerated insisted only he knew how Jesus was 3 days and 3 nights in the earth when He died on a Friday and rose Sunday. The same man said he knew how many spirits God had, seven. Even the Apostles understood very little from Jesus until they were able to discern spiritual matters.
The church I've been visiting regularly for about four years now has preached many messages but I have yet to hear the gospel. I've heard water baptism saves you but not the "...gospel of Christ, which is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,.... (Romans 1:16) And no, water baptism can not save us, being born again does. There's a young man I know who works at the same rec center and he gave me his testimony. He said, "A friend of mine called me and said get dressed, I'm picking you up to take you somewhere, and I've been attending church every since."
Weeks later I intentionally threw out Christian terminology to see his response and if he understood what I was saying. I spoke of the gospel of Jesus Christ and being born again of God, and of the Holy Spirit and I could tell, he had no idea what I was referencing. He consistently attends church on Sunday's and a men's group on Wednesday's, but I wonder is this man born again. I just heard a well known Pastor who's service is televised say, "We are all children of God." I just shook my head.
Unfortunately I would speculate many churches do not share the gospel. We often hear altar calls to give your life to Jesus or let Him into your heart, but that's not the gospel. I think many churches assume the congregation is saved, but that's not what Jesus said with the parable of the wheat and the tares, which is a metaphor for both saved and unsaved sitting in the church. Personally at the end of every church service, the Pastor should explain the gospel and then ask if anyone wants to become born again.
"We all have been given a death sentence because we all inherited Adam's sin nature and the penalty for sin is death. But God's Son stepped out from the chamber into God's courtroom and said He will become the sin nature, all sins will be placed on Him and He will die in our place. Anyone believing from the heart in His death, burial and defeat of it, by His resurrection will be born again, thus saved from death, hell and the grave. Would anyone like to be born again? Every church service should end with "...the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." Because in it is the word of faith to the hearer.
God is good in all His ways, but He will eventually judge sin because He is also a just God, and the penalty for sin is death. By rejecting Jesus’ death on the cross as our death, we pay for our own sins during God’s judgment. After the church, which is Christ’s body of believers, is taken up to heaven, God’s next prophetic calendar of events will be the dispensation of His wrath—a seven-year tribulation, known in the Old Covenant as Jacob’s trouble, which primarily concerns the nation of Israel and the gospel preached to the remaining unreached world.
However, regardless of whether you are Jew or Gentile, if you enter into that dispensation and have already heard the gospel during this dispensation of God’s grace, you will face trouble and hell will become your permanent residence. Why? "...because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). Embedded in the message of the Word of God, presented and heard, is the faith to believe the gospel, but people refuse to believe it because they prefer darkness over light. "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)
Before the born again experience, we are without strength, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. God never expects us to do something He didn’t give us the power and ability to do. Embedded in the word of God is the faith of God to believe God. No one will stand before Him with an excuse. He knows what He put in us to know Him (Romans 1:19), and He knows what comes with hearing His word—faith!
Everyone knows the only way to revive a car battery is through an external power source that regenerates it back to life. However, many of us mistakenly believe all we need to DO to achieve right standing with God is get some degreaser, soap, and water, along with some hand and elbow works of righteousness. We can perform all the righteous acts we can imagine, still none of our self-efforts and self-works will change us inwardly. We need a new nature. We must be born again or we still remain dead to God, however good our deeds are. Scripture is clear on dead works and dead deeds. Everyone is lost from God, but God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to seek those who know they are lost, blind, lame, poor, sick, empty, broken, and dead in trespasses and sins.
"And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder;” The way this scripture has been revealed to me is when we come to Jesus, the stone, we come because we realize our need for Him, and see our brokeness and desperation, but if the stone falls on those who reject Him, He will destroy them on judgement day. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Luke 19:10); (Matthew 21:44); (Matthew 16:26-26).
I once heard Dr David Jeremiah share on the subject of faith stating, "faith is not believing in faith, but believing in the object of our faith, not faith in faith," (paraphrased). In the book of James 2:18 scripture says, "...I will show you my faith by my works." We discussed this briefly earlier, but let me expound.
I was talking to a guy once selling t-shirts with the word “Faith” on them and so I asked him what faith meant to him. His response was, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” as quoted directly from Hebrews 11:1. It sounds good, but vague and although a very powerful scripture, I’m not sure it defines faith, perhaps more so on how to appropriate it. I went on to share with him my version of Dr. Jeremiah's teaching on faith.
I began to explain to the young man, our faith is based on the object of what or whom we're believing in. I gave him an example of a broken chair compared to a new one, and a broken-down car compared to a new car. I then asked him which one he would have more confidence in. Naturally, we would feel safer and more secure sitting in a new chair or assured of reaching our destination and returning safely in a new car, rather than sitting in a broken chair or traveling in an old, unreliable vehicle. If you believe that the object will fulfill its promises, you will respond appropriately by taking action. You will either sit down or get into the car. Faith without works is not faith. This might sound a bit harsh to some, but I then proceeded to tell him that his faith is meaningless if it’s not based on what God says. In fact, according to God’s word, if you don’t believe what God says, you have an evil heart of unbelief.
If God said it, it's true! “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" - (Numbers 23:19). Faith is tangible. Faith is an object and the object is God and the word of God - both immutable. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6).
More times than I care to count, I have heard only the first part of this scripture presented "...without faith it's impossible to please God." It was usually presented during a message on how faith works or you don't have enough faith. I felt so condemned. Just to set the record straight or set it in truth, if you are born again, you have faith, because we are saved by grace, through faith; (Ephesians 2:8-9), and if you are not yet born again and are hearing the gospel, you're being feed faith, as scripture says, "...God has dealt to each one a measure of faith."(Romans 12:3).
In case you haven't notice, we've actually been traveling through the book of Romans already, but let's continue in Rome!
Almost everything we need to hear and believe in order to be saved is found in this one book as stated earlier. I've heard many say they've lead someone to salvation by quoting the Romans Road. Here's a little summary of what this powerful book is about.
Romans is written by the Apostle Paul to the church of Rome. Paul was commissioned by the risen Lord to preach the gospel to the Gentiles in all of the known world. This was of course during the time of the Roman Empire and Paul's greatest desire was to bring his beautiful feet of the gospel to Rome. It is said that this book read by Martin Luther, when finally understood, resulted in the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. "Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the view on indulgences....Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ;" - Martin Luther. As a result, Puritans migrated to America, seeking refuge from religious persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. They sought a place to worship God according to their newfound understanding of scripture. The Puritans played a pivotal role in the early history of North America, primarily settling in the New England region. Their fundamental belief was that salvation is achieved solely through grace, not through any merit derived from good works.
The book of Romans begins with God's courtroom and His case against mankind that rightly judges us to a guilty sentence punishable by death - condemnation. All are guilty. The immoral, the moral and the Jew stand guilty before God as violating His standards of living. But God in His abundant love, mercy and grace provides for us the power unto salvation that enables us to escape this death sentence handed down to us by Adam. It is through this book that we learn; justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that can only be found in Christ Jesus. Here is a brief synopsis:
Having read the last three sections of this site, I hope we are beginning to grasp the essence of the gospel of peace, which is the gospel of Christ, and ultimately, the gospel of God. I have shared this truth numerous times before, but I would like to present it once more through Paul’s own words as inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is undoubtedly the most suitable place to define the gospel based on the scriptures found in the Pauline epistle addressed to the Corinth church.
We must agree when Jesus says; “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6). Sorry Bunny! Easter is celebratory for the risen Lord.
Our goodness must be equal to that of Jesus’ sinless perfect life during His earthly ministry, where He committed no sin in thoughts, deeds, heart, or words. As a little boy, He was obedient in every way, showing no selfishness nor lying about eating cookies. As a teenager, although He had male hormones they never caused lustful desires for girls. During His ministry, when the guards struck Him, He didn’t harbor any evil heart seeking revenge. Instead, He cried out,"Father forgive them for they know not what they're doing.
We must agree with the Triune God that we can’t be good enough on our own. We must confess our failure to meet God’s standard of living and recognize our need for a Savior, because we can not save ourselves. Water baptism can not save us. If we are emersed in water as a sinner, we will only come up as a wet sinner. Even praying the sinners prayer can not save us if it's not sincere from the heart and you can not be saved without the Holy Spirit present.
I once heard an elderly lady, dear to my heart, say, "I just want to earnnnn my way to heaven!" It was during this conversation that the Lord unveiled the true nature of her unbelief to me. I cringed! It's not the first time I’ve encountered individuals who refuse to believe the only way to receive the gift of eternal life is simply by believing. Or even those who believe there is no God, dismissing Him as a mere figment of imagination or claiming "The man upstairs and I are cool;" and the one most often spoken, "I'm a good person, I'll get there." But it was this time for a brief moment God let me see her unbelieving heart from God's view, evil. What's so heart breaking is this is someone who attends mass regularly, but one who also periodically says, "....if there really is a God;" and one who hates to hear scriptures quoted from the bible. "Dont quote me scriptures from the bible, I don't want to hear it!" That's an oxymoron. "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37). Let me be clear, we are in God's dispensation of grace and He IS NOT condemning anyone or any nation but wanting all to come to His saving grace. If you die rejecting His gift that's a whole different ball game - an eternal one at that.
It's the case of who can jump across the grand canyon from one side to the other side where God is? You may jump a whole lot farther than me and have a lot of gold medals to prove it, but you still won't make it competely across to the other side. In the sight of God, we all fall short. What we need is a bridge to walk across. That bridge is Jesus.
Some versions of the Bible, like the New Living Translation (NLT), write "how to be made right with God" instead of the "righteousness of God". I know when we believe we are made right with God, no longer enemies, but I struggled with the phrase, "the righteousness of God", until finally I just ask God, "what does the righteousness of God mean and why not just say "right with God" instead righteousness of God, if that's what it means"? Immediately I heard the indwelling Holy Spirit say to me, "Romans 12:2!" Whoa! As the prodigal child trying to find my way back home, for some reason I was lead to memorize Romans 12:1-2, so I immediately knew the scripture without looking it up and new then it's meaning.
In the first verse of chapter 12 of Romans it tells all the world, in lieu of all that God has done (chapters 3-11), through His mercies toward mankind, present yourself to Him to become alive to God; BORN AGAIN thereby being made the righteousness of God; which then makes us the good of God, the acceptable of God, and the perfect will of God, in spirit and in truth in Christ Jesus. This is what Adam and Eve lost in the garden—their identity or better yet, their robe of righteousness of which includes the good and perfect will of God. Sin stripped them of righteousness, thereby leaving them naked, shamed and in want, but believers regain it believing God's unmerited, undeserved, unsought grace through faith. This is 'God confidence' knowing who we are in Christ and knowing who our Abba, Father is as the rewarder of those seeking Him, rejoicing in Him, conversing with Him, crying, and laughing with Him. Once we have received God's mercy - (not getting what we deserve), and become born again, we abound in His grace - (getting what we don't deserve). Mercy is never again apart of the equation. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:8).
If you are one who was taught, you just have to be good enough, please contemplate, if becoming the righteousness of God is through self-efforts, or what scripture calls "works of righteousness, why did "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (as the living sacrifice), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life?"
In the book of Romans for the most part 'sin,' 'flesh,' and 'carnal', is referencing the sin nature we inherited from Adam. You can read almost all of Romans and replace 'sin, flesh or carnal' with 'sin nature,' 'old Adamic-nature' 'unregenerated' or even 'old Adam' and it still reads correctly. In the epistles written to the church of Corinth, 'flesh' and 'carnal' reference believers who should by now have grown some, yet remain still babes in knowledge and behavior. I was one of them during my years of prodigal living. Born again believers are one in Christ, and as new born again (baby) Christians, having received God's gift, we are well pleasing to God because, "...after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,..."
The blessing of Abraham as promised is the Spirit of life given and as spoken about in the book of Galatians! (Genesis 12:1-2; Romans 8:8-9; Ephesians 1:13; Galatians 3:13-14). Scripture tells us "as Christ is, so are we in this world". (1 John 4:17). What this means is, when God sees His child, He sees him/her complete and finished with Christ in Himself. This is something as a child of God one must meditate on until revelation from the Holy Spirit enables one to see the truth. As we become born again of God, of the Holy Spirit, we truly take on His divine nature which is holy and sinless in spirit, then sealed by the Holy Spirit. Just like Adam who transferred his sin nature to all of mankind, in the new birth of Christians God transfers His nature to us which is sinless. Not figuratively, not positional, but literally our Adam-ic sin nature is crucified, buried and sent to hell and we are raised up as new creations with a spirit born of God. No transformation required in our spirits when we go home because they are already complete, blameless, holy, saved and finished!
I've said a lot in this section so let me try to recap and summarize what I pray is clear and understood regarding our reasonable response to God's call. Embedded in the word of God is the faith to believe God. Once we have heard the goods news of God's plan for reconcilation by Him providing His only Son as the substitionary sacrifice for sin(s), our only appropriate response should be in agreement knowing from the heart He didn't just die for all of us, but He rose three days later in victory of death, sin, the grave, hell and Satan. This is believing and confessing from the heart with the mouth unto salvation and never ever having to be repeated again because, "Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place ONCE for all, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews 9:12)
Recently a young man in his 80's told me he is an atheist. I told him that's not true because the word of God tells us He put it in us to know Him, and none of us will have an excuse. He then went on to say, he wouldn't believe there is a God unless he saw Him. It is my personal belief that most professing atheist are people who prayed to God as a child for something they were going through that was so painful and since it appeared their prayer wasn't answered, they decided to suppress the truth over a lie, and say there is no God. I wish I could say my response was immediate regarding this man's 'seeing is believing' concept, but I didn't. I thought about it for several days and the next time I saw him, I asked him, "Have you ever seen the wind?" I was prepared to continue in asking "how about emotions or the self will or even the mind of a person", but the wind was sufficient. Perhaps it was God's will that I didn't think of a quick immediate response at the time, because his response to my question may have been more impactful. He simply seemed shocked and pleased as his only response was, "You remembered our conversation." I told him, "Yes, and that I had thought long and hard about it". Because of the way it turned out, I believe my new friend received affirmation and experienced a geniune love and concern for his well-being and eternal destiny that might not have been experienced had my response been sooner. And yes we have drawn so much closer as a result.
It breaks my heart when I hear of others who complain about how their being told "they better or God's going to get them," which is the very thing we have been liberated from, FEAR! "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty," (2 Corinthians 3:17). Or being told"rebellion is a form of witchcraft", in an attempt to instill fear. Rebellion for me caused me to read, study, meditate and be determined to understand scripture from God, not man and to rely on the Holy Spirit to give me revelation of the word, rather than from someone elses misinterpretation of scripture. God takes all things and turns them to good to those who belong to Him. Never condemnation or trying to make a person feel bad about themselves.
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you say to others about your own deceitfulness and how much you suppress the truth over a lie; every single one of us knows that we have sinned against the holy, sinless Creator God. In fact, many of us will admit in our hearts, "We've gone too far for forgiveness."
Forgive me for sharing this, but I can’t recall the exact details, but the point is well-presented. I was listening to a Bible teacher who shared an incident that I believe occurred with Dwight L. Moody after he had preached a sermon. Moody approached a man sitting in the back of the facility who was weeping. Moody asked the man why he was crying. The man replied, paraphrasing, “Don’t tell me God will forgive me after all I have done. I’m responsible for many young girls who are prostituting and struggling with drug addiction.” In response, the preacher said, “That’s the love of God.”
Dr. James Dobson, the founder of the evangelical organization ‘Focus on the Family’, conducted an interview with Ted Bundy on the eve of his execution. Bundy had professed acceptance of Jesus Christ as his personal savior and identified as a born-again Christian. Ted Bundy was a notorious American serial killer, rapist, and kidnapper who confessed to 30 murders of young women and girls across seven states between 1974 and 1978. I once spoke with a professing Christian who was taken aback when I told her about Christ dying for sinners and His ability to forgive even the worst sinner like Ted Bundy. She vehemently disagreed, stating that such forgiveness was not right and that Bundy should be sent directly to hell. This perspective contradicts the concept of God’s love.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." O, how many people miss this scripture! For all we know Hitler may be in heaven, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer too. But the one who says, "I will not create a wedding cake for those two gay guys because it's an abomination and it's a sin what they're doing, may very well not be a Christian, but self-righteous and may end up missing the Ark. A person like that should study the scripture and understand that God doesn’t judge sin on a scale. If she rejects one sin and refuses service, shouldn’t she reject all sin and refuse service to every sinner who enters the establishment?
The moment a person hears the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, Satan’s demons launch an attack on them with lies, deceit, and condemnation. Referring to the “Sower and the soil” parable in the gospels, Jesus describes a farmer who sows seed on various types of ground—path, rocky soil, thorns, and good soil—each representing different responses to the message of the kingdom of God. The sower is the bearer of good news, the seed is the word, and the soils are the hearts of people.(Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15). As Christians, our responsibility is to let our light shine so that others can see our good works and share the gospel of truth. The Triune God takes over, and the only reasonable response in light of God’s mercies is to “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” In essence, become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus by believing in the gospel that states Christ died for all mankind, for all sin and for all time. But He didn't stay in the grave. He rose the third day having obtained victory over death, hell, the grave and Satan.