October 13, 2024 -One Way to Salvation

JEREMIAH 22:1-23:20

2 THESSALONIANS 1:1-12

PSALM 83:1-18

PROVERBS 25:11-14

One Year Bible Audio & Daily Reading (oneyearbibleonline.com)

2Thessalonians 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

When I read this I wondered if anyone has used this verse to support the possibility of salvation without faith in Jesus. If you read this with the emphasis on the word "and", you could take it to mean that to be punished you must not only not know God, but you must ALSO not obey the gospel. So, someone could take that to mean that if you live a "good" life and obey the teaching of Jesus then you will not be punished. After all it says in Romans 1:20 that we are born with a built-in knowledge of God so we are without excuse.

Out of curiosity I pulled up a couple other translations to see how they word it. The Above is the NIV. Below I have listed 3 others.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 AMP

8 dealing out [full and complete] vengeance to those who do not [seek to] know God and to those who ignore and refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus [by choosing not to respond to Him].

2 Thessalonians 1:8 NLT

8 in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 ESV

8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

The Amplified version gives us the added explanation that what it means to refuse to obey the gospel is choose not to respond to Him. That makes sense because the gospel or the Good News is not His teaching on how to be a good person. The gospel is the message that Jesus came to earth to live the perfect life that we cannot live and took on our sins dying the death that we deserve and that He rose again and is with the Father so that anyone who believes in Him and what He has done can do the same. So, the only way to refuse to obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is to not believe in Him. To not respond to the gift that He freely gives. He tells us in John 14:6 that He is the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

It can be tempting to want to find a way to support salvation by other means because it is painful to know that there are people who even though they are born with the knowledge of the existence of God they still refuse to trust in Jesus. It is especially painful when it is our loved one. We must trust God to be able to reach the lost and to know the heart of each person at their last breath. A heart turned to Him will be saved in that instant so we can have hope that they may respond to Him and turn their heart to Jesus even up to the moment of their last breath. Don't stop praying for the lost and trust the sovereignty of God.