Lets us use our imagination today and go on a wild journey. We are going do a different universe, not a different galaxy but a different universe altogether, one that has a different god who created and rules it. There is life there, they are kinda like us, lets call them aliens.

Now lets pretend that some of these aliens flew to our planet and landed in your church parking lot. Most folks fled in terror but some of us invited them out to breakfast!

As we begin to converse with them we discovered they were very much interested in our god and how we interacted with Him. This is how the conversation went:

Alien: let me get this straight, you are telling me that your god is a good god, that he is perfectly good and never does anything wrong? That he is the all powerful creator of your universe.

Christian: yes

Alien: and he has told you that you are to be like him, to be good and to never do anything wrong according to his commandments?

Christian: yes

Alien: and he has said that if you don’t obey him he will punish you forever and ever?

Christian: yes

Alien: and you are telling me that you in fact don’t obey his commandments?

Christian: yes

Alien: and therefore you are going to be punished forever and ever?

Christian: nope

Alien: and why is that? This is not making any sense.

Christian: because He has told us that if we humble ourselves before Him and ask for forgiveness that he would forgive us all our sins.

Alien: and why would he do that?

Christian: because not only is He perfect, and good, and all powerful, but He is also kind, loving, merciful, and forgiving.

Alien: okay, so he tells you to be good and you agree with him the need to be good, but then you turn around and do not live a good life, and then you ask him to forgive you and everything is alright.

Christian: yup

Alien: why don’t you just do what you are told. That is what we do.

Christian: can’t 

Alien: why not?

Christian: we are slaves to another, our sins. We can’t stop sinning.

Alien: why don’t you ask your all powerful god to free you from the slavery of sin so you can obey him and him only?

Christian: he has set us free from the slavery of sin so that we can obey only him.

Alien: hmmm? Okay, im confused. This is not making any sense. You have been set free by your all powerful god from the slavery of sin but you continue to sin anyway?

Christian: yup

Alien: why?

Christian: because for one thing we take great pleasure in committing our favorite sins so we have a hard time saying no to it. And another thing is we know that if we sin we can always ask Him to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Alien: if your god is all powerful as you say he is and if he has delivered you from the slavery of your sins, even if it is still hard to say no to your sins, if he has set you free why don’t you live in that freedom? Aren’t you taking advantage of his kindness and generosity?

Christian: I guess you could say we are but we are counting on the fact that he is kind, loving, and forgiving.

Alien: it doesnt make any sense to me, it sounds like to me that you are playing with fire. If I were you I wouldn’t mess around with your god. I read your bible it took me 2 seconds to read it. It sounds like he is indeed kind and forgiving but sounds like he is also stern. But anyway good luck with that.

Christian thanks, but hey what about your god? What is he like?

Alien: oh he is great, he lets us do whatever we please and when we die we get to spend eternity in his heaven.

Christian: damn

Me: imagination off

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, may he lift up his face upon you and be gracious to you, may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

P.S. this is just something for you to think about.