The Gift

It's not that anybody who doesn't accept Christ is going to hell as much as it is that without Christ we are incapable of reaching Heaven. God doesn't want people to go to hell, Satan does. It is Satan who is to blame if anyone goes to hell. He has preyed upon the weaknesses of mankind. It is Satan who deceived Eve and Adam and given us this heritage of death and wickedness. God does not will that any should be lost. It's not that Christianity is superior to other religions. It is just based on the belief that mankind is unable to ever re-pay the debt of our sins. There isn't anything that we can do to escape our nature, that is human nature, the nature that kills, that hates, that covets, that is narcissistic, that wants to exalt itself, that wants it's way when it wants it and wants everything for itself now. That nature that seeks after outward appearances and is steeped with hypocrisy. Many are hypocrites even after they have recognized their need for Christ. Christianity like other religions recognizes that righteousness and Heaven are to be attained, and if you do not attain them you must continue to suffer, it recognizes that ultimately you must choose truth or peace or love or transcendence. It is only Christianity that recognizes the futility of that effort. God doesn't desire that any man fail to attain Heaven, but death begets death. A life for a life for a life for a life... Jesus is the personification of the desire God has that none should perish. Jesus is God's way of achieving what God desires (that none perish - the way of assuring that we can receive what we cannot attain through our own efforts - victory over death!) That is why it is important to recognize the sinlessness of Christ. Christ lived a life that was not offensive to God, a life uncorrupted by the wickedness he lived amongst. Christ the only man who attained righteousness, the only one who could stand before the Law in abeyance, the only life that Satan hadn't won. Yet Christ was killed. He went willingly. He took upon Himself the sin of the whole world, the sin of the whole space-time continuum. He essentially said He took upon Himself the consequences of all sin, the judgment against all men, all who failed, all of who have fallen short, who have missed the mark of Heaven. He became sin who had no sin in Him. He bore all of Satan's hatred of men, all of Satan's hatred of God, all of Satan's hatred of the love of God for men, all of Satan's jealousy, all his rage, all of Satan's legal right to inflict punishment, and it cost Christ everything, even His life. He did this for us, but He is greater than death, and death could not hold him. He gave his life as a gift to us, and offers us this life for eternity. In order that this life to be ours however we must accept the gift. When we accept this gift His life displaces ours. If we but accept, then He lives in us, and we begin to submit our life to His. Christ's victory is ours, a gift given with the greatest of all love.