Board Thread:Community Discusson/@comment-27587562-20160214033339/@comment-5175866-20160214200402

Hi. First of all the questions you are asking are very commonplace among non-Christians. The best answer I can give you is this:

No one is righteous and no one is innocent (this is according to the Bible). God has a set of ten standards laid out in the Ten Commandments. If you break just one law then you are not perfect and therefore need to be punished. Punishment needs to happen in order to justify our transgressions against the law, sin. This can be compared to any country, that has written laws. When a law is broken due justice through punishment has to be brought about. Also consider the amount of the Ten Commandments in which someone has broken. I probably have broken all ten, at least eight of them, not to mention that by breaking one law you break them all. Even though I have never committed adultery with a woman, Jesus says anyone who lusts after a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The exact same thing applies to murder. Judging on this I should be in a heap load of punishment. I continually sin and break the laws of God each and every day. Multiple times in the Bible it is listed that the wrongdoers will not receive God's kingdom. Since God is a good God He cannot stand evil. Evil must be punished, the same as anyone who breaks a law in a country must receive punishment for their law violation. Here is where there is a twist. In some of those lists of people who will not receive Heaven there is a sentence after that reminds that those who believe that Jesus Christ received all of that deserved punishment, will be forgiven and have a clean slate. Friend, your statements are so common. We are trying to be of help to you in showing you that, according to the Bible, punishment is just. I can promise you if I asked every other member of this discussion they would agree that they should be punished based on God's word. We want to share with you though that despite all the deserved punishment, if you put your trust in Christ you will be forgiven. Not because God needs anything from us, but because He has given grace as a free gift.