God's Love and Grace

   After two journalists working for Fox News were kidnapped at gunpoint in Gaza, they were blindfolded and bound and made to lie face-down on a concrete floor for hours.  During several days of captivity and brutality, they were given an “opportunity” to convert to Islam.  For their captors who were following the principle that an enemy must be offered a chance to convert or pay taxes to Islamic captors, or face death, it seemed like a divinely ordained action.

     Imagine Christian missionaries going into the jungles of South America, holding guns at the heads of the native people and telling them to accept Christ or die.  The idea is ludicrous.  It goes against the very nature of God to force someone into a relationship with Him. 

     In Western law, there is the established principle that no agreement negotiated “under duress” is valid.  In other words, if you sign away the title of your car to someone holding a gun at your head, it is still auto-theft, even though your signature is on the document.  No contract negotiated under duress is legally binding.  That is why confessions which are coerced are not legally binding. 

     God loved us enough to die on a cross for us.  He wants us to love Him back.  “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Our God desires to bring us to a relationship with Him through love, not through fear and coercion.   When we go on mission trips to other nations, and go into some of the poorest regions of those nations, we bring gifts of love to those people.  We go with medical help, food and clothing, and copies of the Bible in their native language.  We share our faith by showing our concern and trying to improve the lives of the people.  We witness to them with joy and love.  The idea that a Christian missionary would capture, bind and torture someone into accepting Christ is unimaginable in this age. 

     Each person must make the decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ, and that decision must be sincere and real.  It cannot be done to impress someone or even to escape death.  It must be freely made.  God freely gave His sacrifice to make possible a personal relationship with Him;  it can only be freely accepted and never coerced. 

     I do not know if the Fox newsmen became converts to Islam;  I imagine they were trying to save their lives by “accepting” Islam.  If you were faced with that choice and someone put a gun to your head and said, “Renounce your faith in Jesus Christ or die,” what would you do?  I am reminded of that brave pastor of the Berzhitsa Baptist Church in Bryansk, Russia, who refused to stop preaching the Gospel.  With a gun held to his head by a KGB officer, he said, “If you must shoot me, then so be it, but I have to preach about Jesus Christ, even if it costs me my life.”  What choice would we make?  Like Peter would we deny Him?  Or would we place our lives in His hands and proclaim our faith?   

     Being a Christian is not something we can pick up when it’s convenient, and take off when it’s not.  It is who we are.  It is deeper than our skin color, because men and women of all races can become children of God through Jesus Christ.  It is deeper than our political affiliation, because both conservatives and liberals can be saved.  It is deeper than our religious membership, because He has told us that whosoever believes on Him will be saved. 

     Jesus Christ wants to be your brother, best friend, and Lord of your life; but He wants you to want that relationship too.  He will never twist your arm, or hold a gun to your head.  But He won’t quit trying to reach your heart with His love and grace.