No Fate I Dread

The most terrifying passage in all of Scripture ends with the most beautiful hope. Today we're looking at what it means to face eternity without fear – not because judgment isn't real, but because Someone has already faced it for us.

John 5:24 "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life."

Let me be honest with you – the reality of eternal judgment is terrifying. The Bible describes hell as "the fiery hell," "the furnace of fire," "the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth," "the fury of fire," "the lake of fire," "unquenchable fire." You do not want to go to hell. 

I repeat: You do not want to go to hell.

And this judgment is eternal. 

After the verdict is rendered, there's no appeal process. 

CS Lewis puts it accurately in The Last Battle – “their entire life in this world had been merely the cover and title page. Now begins a book with no end." That's the reality for every single person you've ever seen. Their life on earth is just the cover and title page of a book that will never end.

But here's the hope that changes everything: "He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life."

Notice it doesn't say "will have eternal life" – it says "has eternal life." Present tense. Because eternal life isn't just living forever; it's a rich intimacy with God in the here and now. If you're a Christian, you've already passed from death to life.

Paul was a murderer, yet he looked forward to receiving the crown of life. Why? Not because his good deeds outweighed his bad, but because he had been justified by the blood of the Lamb, declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ.

There's a song lyric that captures this perfectly: "No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid, for Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and He was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea. Oh the chains are released, I can sing I am free, yet not I but through Christ in me."

If you're in Christ today, no fate you dread. The future is sure because the price has been paid. Jesus bled and suffered for your pardon and was raised to overthrow the grave.

But if you are not in Christ, you need to know: you are under the judgment of God right now, you will stand before the Judge in the future, and then you will be under God's judgment for all eternity. But even today, even right now, if you come to Jesus in faith, He can take away your sin, make you white as snow, change you, and give you a new hope with a new future destiny.

How do you know if your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life? If you believe in the Lamb.

Stay dialed in.