We have all met people who don’t understand God. They think wrong thoughts about God; they say wrong words about God. God gets blamed for a lot of things He has nothing to do with – like sin and death. So many people think that God kills everybody. They say, “Well, the Lord took Uncle John.” God didn’t take him – he died. Death took him. Now God took his soul and spirit to heaven – if he knew the Lord. But God didn’t kill him. Death doesn’t come from God. He created the world without death in it. In fact, Jesus Christ came to save us and destroy death – which is the last enemy, I Cor. 15:26. People who think God is angry with them are ignorant of God.

What is Ignorance?

Ignorance is “a lack of knowledge, understanding, or education; to be uninformed.” We are all ignorant from birth – we lack knowledge, understanding, and education. As we go through life we learn about the world around us and we overcome ignorance on various topics. Yet there are many things we will remain ignorant of our entire life. And that’s okay! There are so many things that it does not matter if we learn about them or not. But there is an ignorance that is dangerous. The Greatest Ignorance is to NOT know God and His Truth. This is ignorance at its worst point. Ignorance by itself is not a sin, but ignorance of God and His laws will quickly result in sin.

I wish everyone knew that God is NOT angry with them; He loves them. God is not mad at you, and He does not Hate you. He cares for you! He sent His Son, not to condemn you, but to save you. But He will not forgive you unless you by faith turn away from sin and to Him. How do we do that? Understand the bad news – we are already condemned by sin. Believe the good news – put your trust in Jesus Christ who died in your place and rose again. If you want to be forgiven of all of your sins – become a genuine follower of Christ.

Many people believe that God is going to condemn them. And if they go to church, they are sure they will feel guilty and uncomfortable. Many wrongly conclude, “If I go to church they are going to criticize the way I live and I’m just going to feel even more guilty than I already am. Why go to church if it is going to make me feel miserable!”

Jesus did not come to condemn us. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:17, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” We know this is true because that is exactly what Jesus did for 3 ½ years. He reached out to everyone – the rich and the poor; the weak and the powerful; the sick and the healthy.

God does not condemn people; Jesus does not condemn people. Why? For the simple reason – we are already condemned, John 3:18. He doesn’t need to condemn us. You don’t become condemned because one day you say, “Well, I don’t believe in Jesus Christ.” If in your life you ever came to that conclusion, you were already condemned.

Where is the evidence or proof that we are condemned? Is it because everyone is evil and wicked? No – there are a lot of decent people in the world. There are many unbelievers who do kind things for others. How do we know that all people are condemned – including myself? We die. We are all going to die. The focus of Jesus life was His death and resurrection. He said, “because I live, ye shall live also” John 14:19. The good news – the greatest news – is that our Savior arose from the dead and lives today. We do not have to live with feelings of condemnation or false guilt. When we give our hearts to Christ, we are completely forgiven of every sin we have ever committed – past, present, and future. The focus of the disciples’ message was not Jesus’ teachings or miracles, but rather that He died and rose again for us. This is great news for all of us!!! I wish everybody knew!