Universalism is a system of religious beliefs maintaining that all people are predestined for salvation. Hell will be empty. Yippee.
Rob Bell admits to it in his upcoming new book, “Love Wins.” It is fun to teach and falls so beautifully on a hurting soul. The only problem with it is…the Bible. Look no further than Matthew 7:13, 21 that teaches the way is narrow, not wide, and not everyone who cries out “Lord Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The meta-narrative of the Bible is simple. The Gospel in four words: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Completion.
All of scripture, both old and new testament, is about Jesus and our redemption through Him. Even as far back as Isaiah 52:13-53:12 we learn that there would be a Redeemer who would bring redemption.
But as Snetzer wrote in Steps at the Village, “but here is the problem. We always look for the wide and easy rode. We don’t look for redemption in Jesus, we look for it in ourselves. We recognize, we try, we fail, we start over. This is repeated over and over, and unless we experience an entire psychic change there is no hope for our recovery.”
Men and women who are alcoholics drink differently than normal people. Men who are addicted to porn look at women differently. Women who have an eating disorder do not have a normal relationship with food.
We each turn to things for our comfort, for our peace, when we are alone we turn to things for our joy. We each have things that we put our trust. We obsess about ways that we are going to be able to engage that thing that we love so much without it owning us. So we try to manage it.
We were created to have an obsession for something, it’s just not things of this world.
But here’s the thing. If you are promising yourself relief or restoration of your longing, aching, and spiritual malady other than or apart from the redemptive work of Christ, you are lying to yourself, the plan wont work, it outside of God, and you are a false teacher.
What is it you turn to when you’re irritable, restless and discontent other than Jesus? Because we all have these patterns, these things that we turn to other than Christ that we continue to come back to. And the insanity of it all is that it never works. It may provide short-term relief, but long-term it provides harm. It leaves us empty. Where do you turn when Jesus isn’t enough?
Romans 8:22 says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” There’s something wrong. Even the earth knows it. Irritable, restless and discontent is not the perfect peace of the garden. It’s the opposite. And so we groan for something different. And what happens is Satan comes along and throws shiny objects before our deceitful hearts and says, “This will make you happy. This will fix that problem.”
Romans 8:20-21 is where we begin to see hope. If He’s NOT frustrating your attempts to find satisfaction apart from Him, if your own attempts to break free from the insanity are working…then be very very afraid. If instead He’s frustrating your attempts, thank the Lord that He is. Because there’s hope in that!
“The spiritual life which I have is not my own. I did not induce it, and I cannot maintain it. It is only and solely the work of Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me. My whole life is His alone.” John Owen
Step Two: there is no hope for a release from our insanity apart from Christ.
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