Pity the poor atheist. His life is a straight line from birth to death. At death, his straight line of life takes a horrible plunge. He now realizes his grand mistake. He asks for a ‘do over.’ God declines. Then he suggests a substitute punishment, like maybe twenty push-ups? God declines, saying Hell has been the punishment for centuries. Wasn’t the highly intellectual atheist paying attention?
The agnostic suffers the same fate. He believes in God’s existence, but he thinks after creating the universe, God retired to an old folks’ home on Pluto. Too late, he realizes God is not on the planet Pluto, but right in front of him. Seeing the decidedly downward turn of his future, he pleads for mercy. After all, he’s always believed in God’s existence. Doesn’t that count for something? Not any more than believing in the existence of barbecue sauce, God answers.
What of the person who adheres to any other religion except Christianity? His life is straight line as well. According to his religion, it’s paramount he spend as much time doing as many good deeds as possible. His straight-line life is cluttered with good deeds, everything from not using plastic straws to donating as many kidneys as he can spare. He must chock up as many good deeds as possible to gain his obscure heaven.
As he lies on his death bed, he wonders if he’s done enough. He helped ten old ladies across the street, but maybe he should have helped twenty. And what about the old ladies who were kicking and screaming as he dragged them across the street? Do they count? He realizes he will only know when he faces his ‘god.’ At that moment, his ‘god’ will either give him a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
He decides on his next good deed. As soon as his nurse enters the room, he’ll use his last bit of strength and help her across the street. She may kick and scream, but that’s beside the point. It’ll be one more good deed, just in case he needs it.
The ‘do good’ person also lives a straight line. He doesn’t adhere to any organized religion. He believes in God and the afterlife, but he’s become God’s assistant by developing his own personal religion. It’s filled with at least a hundred ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts.’ That’s not as many as his neighbor Joe. But Joe has some weird ones, like ‘don’t step on a crack, or you’ll break your Grandma’s back.’ Like that could really happen. Nice work, Joe.
God will surely accept his list as valid. Meanwhile, he can pretty much live his life the way he wants. He’ll obey his ‘good do’s and don’ts.’ As for the ‘dos,’ they don’t ask much of him. As for the ‘don’ts,’ he wasn’t going to do them anyway. Rob a bank? Are you kidding? That’s for losers who aren’t going to Heaven.
Confident, the ‘do good’ person appears before God. God asks him a simple question: Did you have ‘trusting in My Son’ on your ‘good’ list? Now stuttering with worry, the ‘do good’ person says he once consider doing that. But he decided he could develop his own path to heaven and didn’t need Jesus.
Seeing the expression on God’s face, the man asks for a do-over. God declines. How about helping angels cross the streets of gold? God again declines. The ‘do good’ person’s straight line life has done him zero good. In fact, it has caused his eternal punishment.
The Christian life is not straight line in any way. Instead, it’s an overlapping of lines life. No Christian is born a Christian. He comes out of the womb living a straight line like everyone else.
But when he says ‘yes’ to Jesus Christ, his life immediately becomes two lines overlapping. He continues living his straight-line life, but he is now also living out his spiritual life through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within him up until he physically dies. The Holy Spirit teaches and leads him into the most fulfilling straight-line life possible.
At his physical death, his straight-line physical life ends, and he immediately joins his Savior and enjoys eternal life with him. The focus is now on his overlapping spiritual life for eternity.
Only believers enjoy this massively powerful dual life. Imagine having God dwell within you from the moment you accept His Son as Savior. That’s kind of cool if you think about it.