10 Excuses For Not Accepting Jesus
10 Excuses For Not Accepting Jesus
Has someone ever shared with you the Good News that Jesus died for your sins and asked you if you would like to turn and follow Him? Did you have some excuse for not accepting Jesus as your Savior? Is one or more of your reasons listed below?
1. I am a good person.
Compared to who? If you are comparing yourself to other people you will always find someone that has done worse things than you. But compared to God's standard we ALL fall short. God's standard is to be perfect. "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48. Even ONE sin will keep you from Heaven. But the Good News is Jesus paid the penalty for our sins for us on the cross. When we trust in Him He gives us eternal life.
3. There are too many hypocrites in the church.
So this is what you will tell God when you face Him on Judgement Day? God's question to you will be "What did you do with my Son, Jesus?". Whether or not you have an opinion about church goers will have nothing to do with your eternal destination. There are hypocrates in church. There are also hypocrites at work. There are even hypocrates in your own family. Does this mean your will disown your family and never go to work? This is a very weak excuse and won't hold water when you face the Lord.
5. I already go to church and that makes me a Christian.
So in other words, when you go to MacDonalds that makes you a hamburger? The Bible says in Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost". In other words, no amount of good works, including going to church, will get us to Heaven. Only by the "washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" are we able to go to Heaven. That is being Born Again, John 3:3. Just as we have been born physically, we must be born spiritually. And that can only be done by trusting in Jesus. He makes us clean inside and ready for Heaven. We must trust in Jesus, not trust in our church membership.
6. I need to straighten my life out first.
Has there ever been a time when your life was totally straightened out? A time when you've been completely problem free? You've been a totally good person? There will never be a time when you feel you have "arrived" and are clean and ready to meet Jesus. That is because the Bible says "all have sinned" Romans 3:23. "There is none righteous" no, not one" Romans 3:10. Jesus loves us and wants us to come to Him just as we are. When we do, He is the one who cleans us from the inside out and makes us ready for Heaven. We can never do that on our own.
7. I'll wait until I get old.
We all want to live a long life. But are you sure you will live until you are old? And exactly how old is old? Each year as we grow older the concept of old age gets higher and higher. In other words, you will probably put off turning to Jesus until it's too late. The Bible says "now is the the day of salvation" 2 Corinthians 6:2. You don't know if you will even be alive tomorrow. Heart attacks, car accidents, murders, etc. abound. You could be the very next victim. Don't wait until it's too late. Repent and turn to Jesus now.
8. I don't believe in God.
Just because you don't believe in Him doesn't mean God doesn't exist. Look around you. Where did the earth come from? It had to have had a beginning. If you are thinking, well there was this big bang. Okay, so if there was, then what banged together and where did THAT come from? God shows himself in his creation. He also shows Himself in the changed lives of his believers. That is like the law of cause and effect. We believe in the existence of the wind, air, love, etc. We can't see them but we know they exist because of the effect they have in our lives. Think about this - when you do something wrong you know it right? What tells you that? Your conscience. We all know we shouldn't steal, murder, lie, etc. Everyone on the whole earth has a conscience. Our conscience comes from God. It's universal. No matter where you live you know right from wrong whether you follow your conscience or not. God put it there. There is a God who created you and loves you.
11. All religions lead to Heaven anyway, I'll get there my own way.
If all religions get you to Heaven and they are worshiping the same God then why do some religions teach just the opposite of others? For example, there some that promote hate and murder and force you to follow them or loose your life. The Bible teaches God is love and you should not murder but instead love your neighbor. The God of the Bible gives you a choice to follow Him. How can both these religions lead to the same God? Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but by me.' John 14:6. If all roads lead to Heaven then Jesus wouldn't have had to die on the cross for our sins. The Bible says Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
14. There are too many contradictions in the Bible.
There are? Where? Usually when someone uses this excuse they can't even show you one contradiction. They've heard other people say this and use it as an excuse for themselves. There are those who want so much to refute the Bible so they have an excuse to not follow God that they will find anything that even remotely looks like a contradiction and run with it. In reality, there are no Bible contradictions. Some verses might seem to contradict others if taken out of context or the language may be difficult to understand. But consideration must be taken as to where and when and to whom something was said and why it was said. The Bible must always be taken as a whole and verses must be compared to the main message of the Bible. If the Bible was written by mere men and there are real contradictions in it don't you think that sometime in the last several thousand years someone would have corrected those supposed contradictions? The Bible was inspired by God Himself and nothing has been changed because there isn't any contradictions to change. Read the Bible yourself, not with the heart of refuting God but with a heart searching for God, and see for yourself what the real message of the Bible is.
17. I don't believe in hell.
When some people refuse to acknowledge the existence of hell it's because they are really afraid they might go there. If you've done something you know is wrong remember that Jesus came to take your punishment for you on the cross. Ask for His forgiveness and receive Him as your Saviour. There are those that say hell is right here on earth. In a small sense they are right. The Bible says for Christians we have an "earnest" of our inheritance right here which is a taste of Heaven. The good thing for those who follow the Lord is that this earth is the closest thing to hell Christians will ever know. The sad thing is for those who reject Christ this earth is the closest thing to Heaven they will know. There are about 162 places in the New Testament alone that speak of hell and it's torment. Before you reject hell as being real you owe it to yourself to read the Bible and see what it has to say about it.
So in other words you consider yourself to be a pretty good person? Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen anything, even if it was just a paperclip? Have you ever said God's Name as a curse word? If you have then you are a liar, a thief and a blasphemer. And those are only three of the Ten Commandments. The Bible says in order to get to Heaven by the Law (Ten Commandments) you must be perfect. "Be perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect" Matthew 5:48. Even ONE sin ONE time in your whole life means you have broken God's Law. The Bible says if you offend in even one point you've offended in all. "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it" James 2:10. Trying to follow the Ten Commandments is commendable but it is impossible to keep them all all of the time. The Law was given to show us our sin, not as a way to get to Heaven. Jesus came to earth to fulfill the Law. He was perfect and kept the Law in our place because we couldn't do it. And even though He was perfect He chose to take the punishment we deserve for breaking the Law. It is only through trusting in what Jesus did for us on the cross that we are able to have our sins forgiven and enter into Heaven completely clean because of what Jesus did for us. Transfer your trust from trusting in your own good works and trust Jesus instead. Your eternal destination depends on it.
Okay, so you may be wondering what happened to numbers 2,4,9,10,12,13,15,16,18, & 19? To find out what these excuses are and their answers go to preparetogo.com .
