We recently moved from Texas to California. Texas is known for its hot and humid summers. It goes up to 100-110F (~37-43 C) in summer. Also, coming from India, I know in some states in the North it goes up to 113F and I have heard in the Middle East it goes up to probably 122F or more.
Wherever it may be, in my knowledge, there is not even one person who would love this kind of weather. Everyone who could afford would use an air cooler or some other things to get around this kind of summer. What we understand from this is that 'everyone tries to escape from heat'. May be I can extend that to say, any kind of suffering.
The reason I mentioned this is, some of the gospel presentation that we hear gives a similar picture of escaping from suffering. It would say, "Heaven is Good and, Hell is Bad. In heaven there is no pain, hell is full of suffering. Therefore believe in Christ and inherit heaven!!". Its true that heaven and hell are a reality, but the point that I would like to mention here is that they are only 'rewards'. They are not the ultimate thing that gospel is for. I think what is missing in this message is 'God' himself.
When the attitude of humans is to avoid any kind of suffering, any person would always want to be in Heaven. If they cannot afford to live without a cooler in a hot and humid place here they will definitely hate hell where it is supposed to be fire (or suffering). In a lot of churches where this message is preached as the 'gospel' a lot of people raise their hands or show positive response. After all, comfort is what people long for. The problem of hell as represented in this message might only be a little bigger issue than the summer in Texas.
But this isn't really the message of the gospel, and this in fact is presenting a very much 'self serving' message. As I said in the beginning there is NO God factor in this message. The reason we turn to Christ must be that He is God. This happens only by understanding the greatness of God, the love of God (the greatest commandment - Mark 12: 28-30) and our wretchedness (Romans 3). And of course in order to come to that situation we need to understand how sinful we are and the punishment (wrath of God against sin) that is awaiting us. Paul in Romans (chap 1-3) talks about the wrath of God against the sin and then explains the justification through Christ. Therefore these are needed in the gospel presentation.
God is not a means to some other end, not even heaven. He is the ultimate end, and He himself is the complete satisfaction that we need!
I would like to conclude this blog with a quote from John piper as in the video here.
"...............We are forgiven and justified to bring us to GOD. GOD is our treasure, GOD is the end. My forgiveness is NOT the end, My justification is NOT the end, my going to heaven and not having a sick body anymore is not the END. All of that is means, means to what, knowing Him, seeing Him, loving Him..............."-John Piper
Therefore in your sharing of the gospel, make sure that people are drawn to God and not for a better condition of self.
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