What Really Matters?

Does it really matter what you have for dinner tonight? Does it really matter what clothes you wear or what kind of car you drive? Does it matter what programs you watch on TV today? To some degree these things matter. To some people they matter more than to other people. We all spend time thinking about these kinds of things. But, what really matters is something that most people spend little if any time thinking about and even less time talking about or reading about.

What really matters is an issue that will be significant to you personally, a hundred years from now, even a thousand years from now. “Oh sure”, you say. “I’ll be dead a hundred years from now!” Well that is true, your body will have died by then, but your soul will live on for all eternity. Yes, you have an immortal soul that will either spend all eternity in torment in hell or all eternity in glory with the Lord in heaven: “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” [Heb 9:27] … “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” [Rev 20:15] … “and the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” [Rev 14:11].

You may say you do not believe in hell. If so, can you prove that it does not exist? You had better be able to, because it is not possible to make something go away just because you refuse to believe it exists. God does not modify His system of justice just to suit you. You must comply with Him. He is the creator of all. He is the Almighty King and Lawgiver to whom you will have to give an account someday: “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” [Matt 12:36].

God has declared all mankind guilty of violating his commandments: “There is none righteous, no not one” [Rom 3:10] … “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” [Rom 3:23]. He has also declared that the guilty deserve to be cast into hell for all eternity: “taking vengeance in flaming fire on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” [2 Thes 1:8]. But in God’s mercy, He has made a way of escape. Jesus came to save sinners. In fact the only people in heaven will be sinners, saved sinners whose sins were all paid for by Jesus Christ when he shed his precious blood and died on the cross at Calvary. And by rising from the dead on the third day, Jesus proved He was God and that He had power over sin and death.

So what really matters? Where you spend eternity. That’s what really matters. If it is not much of a concern to you right now, then you are truly in a dangerous condition. Cry out to God to show you how sinful He sees you and how urgently you need to run to Christ and flee the wrath of God: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation” [Heb 2:3]. There is still time to repent of your sins and to receive Christ as your Saviour from hell. Plead with God for mercy while there is hope for you: “God be merciful to me a sinner” [Luke 18:13].

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