Why we need a good defense for what we believe about God’s goodness
The push to finish this sermon series didn’t come from a commentary. It came from my sister-in-law.
She is reading Impartial Grace: Yahweh Is Good To All, and as she reads, I’m certain she is asking the honest questions that book brings to the surface. What about hell? What about judgment? What about the verses that seem to say the opposite?
I wanted to have an answer for her — not a quick answer, not a dismissal of the hard texts, but a thoughtful, biblical defense for what I have come to believe: that our God’s grace is not partial, but complete.
So I started back at the beginning, in the Olivet Discourse. Jesus does not avoid the hard words. He talks about tribulation, darkness, separation, and judgment. If Yahweh is truly good to all, we must be able to sit with those texts and not look away.
This series, Answering the Hard Texts, is the fruit of that study. It is the path I walked to make sure my hope is not just a feeling, but is rooted in Scripture. We will look at the very passages that are used to teach exclusion — and ask, what is Jesus actually saying about judgment, correction, and the final gathering of all peoples?
It is written for my sister-in-law, and for anyone who has asked the same questions. My prayer is that it will give you language, and more importantly, confidence, that the God we preach is as good as the Bible says He is.
“Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” — 1 Peter 3:15
