Do you tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

If you have ever seen an (American) film, you may also be familiar with this sentence that someone should say when they have to appear in court:

I promise that the evidence which I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So I spoke to X today, he had the following question:

Christians often hurt me so much. They say that if someone is righteous and does good deeds and thinks twice before hurting someone and don’t lose their virginity before marriage, but they are not Christian, then they will not go to heaven. They say God will turn righteous people away just because they didn’t follow him. What do you think about that?

And now comes the lesson for today… Suppose someone asks you that question. Then what do you say?

• Jesus loves you?
• God is love?

Or do we tell them “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”? And that also includes:

• Romans 8:23 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
• Romans 6:23 “ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”
• Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.”
• John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”

Why is that part so important?

If you don’t understand that, then it will be a fiasco and a disappointment.. Because which Jesus are we talking about?

About a “something” called Jesus? Something we made up or invented ourselves? Only if you believe in the real Jesus of the bible will you enter heaven. You can’t get in with a half, self-invented, tinkered Jesus.

And after explaining (with the Bible verses in hand, and not one moment “I think, I feel”) X came a little closer to God. X now knows that Jesus is the only way. And yes, we had to go through some very tough topics for that. But when we got through that, he really understood how great that Love was from God.

God is perfect, and He does not allow any imperfection in His heaven. And we are all sinful and have dark spots and stains. If we ignore that, we are telling a false story. Sin needs to be discussed. But if we believe who the real Jesus is, what He has done for us, and why He has done it, we can go to heaven without one speck.

And if we then believe, then we also understand how much God loves us, how great Jesus’ love is for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

And only with the whole story did the conversation with X come to a good end, without pain, without negative feelings.

And yes, of course I could have said: God loves everyone and gives everyone a chance… but that would have been only half the truth and X would not have been saved. Would that have been a fair answer? No.