Become Perfect - Or Else
“Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of
the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven…anyone who
says, you fool! will be in danger of the fire of gehenna…If your right
hand offend you, cut it off, it is better for you to lose one part of your body
than for your whole body to go into gehenna…love your enemies…be ye
perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:20, 22, 30, 44, 48)
There you have it. If you want to stay out of gehenna, all you have to do to stay out of it is to love your enemies, not call anyone a fool, cut off any limb that is offensive, and then be perfectly righteous like God.
If that is your gospel, I got some bad news - you and everyone else is going to "the fire of gehenna".
"There is none righteous, no not one...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:10, 23)
So what is Jesus teaching?
The Jewish leaders had asked about the works necessary to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus told them that in order to enter by doing good works they needed to be way better than their religious leaders, in fact they would have to be perfect like God.
When Jesus used the word translated "gehenna" he was referring to the valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem where the garbage was burned up and where the bodies of those who could not afford a tomb were burned up. Part of that valley was a graveyard at the time, some historians believe. Some Jewish Rabbis taught the myth that the gate of the underworld was in that valley and led to a place of torment. Christianity adopted a similar teaching about hell in about the 3rd or 4th Century AD and it is the majority view today. Jesus, however, was simply referring to death and where the body ends up thereafter…the grave.
After his death and resurrection Jesus taught Paul that "all have sinned" and "the wages of sin” was simply “death”, NOT some mythological underworld of eternal punishment whose gate was in the valley of Hinnom (Gehenna). He further taught Paul that the only way anyone will come out of the grave is by the GRACE of a loving God in raising the dead. Jesus revealed to Paul that...
“...as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive...Listen, I tell you a mystery…the dead will be raised imperishable…Death...swallowed up in victory… thanks be to God! He GIVES US the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:22,51-57)
The wisdom of the salvation of all by the Grace of a just, omnipotent God is the Truth, and the truth condemns the foolishness of salvation through the good works of self-righteous men.
There you have it. If you want to stay out of gehenna, all you have to do to stay out of it is to love your enemies, not call anyone a fool, cut off any limb that is offensive, and then be perfectly righteous like God.
If that is your gospel, I got some bad news - you and everyone else is going to "the fire of gehenna".
"There is none righteous, no not one...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:10, 23)
So what is Jesus teaching?
The Jewish leaders had asked about the works necessary to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus told them that in order to enter by doing good works they needed to be way better than their religious leaders, in fact they would have to be perfect like God.
When Jesus used the word translated "gehenna" he was referring to the valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem where the garbage was burned up and where the bodies of those who could not afford a tomb were burned up. Part of that valley was a graveyard at the time, some historians believe. Some Jewish Rabbis taught the myth that the gate of the underworld was in that valley and led to a place of torment. Christianity adopted a similar teaching about hell in about the 3rd or 4th Century AD and it is the majority view today. Jesus, however, was simply referring to death and where the body ends up thereafter…the grave.
After his death and resurrection Jesus taught Paul that "all have sinned" and "the wages of sin” was simply “death”, NOT some mythological underworld of eternal punishment whose gate was in the valley of Hinnom (Gehenna). He further taught Paul that the only way anyone will come out of the grave is by the GRACE of a loving God in raising the dead. Jesus revealed to Paul that...
“...as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive...Listen, I tell you a mystery…the dead will be raised imperishable…Death...swallowed up in victory… thanks be to God! He GIVES US the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:22,51-57)
The wisdom of the salvation of all by the Grace of a just, omnipotent God is the Truth, and the truth condemns the foolishness of salvation through the good works of self-righteous men.