A preacher from Orlando, Fla., Fred Beckemeyer, who I enjoy listening to over the free internet service Paltalk on Monday nights at 7, made the point recently that just as there will be people in heaven who’ll be surprised they got there, there will also be those surprised they didn’t make it and went to hell instead.

We know from what Paul writes about the Corinthians that many of them were unsaved even though they were very religious—going to church, praying all the time, maintaining a personal relationship with their God.

“They had plenty of religion and yet they were being led around by demonic spirits that inspired them to worship idols,” explains my pastor, Richard Jordan, Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill. (www.graceimpact.org). “I’ve told you all before, I’m real particular when it comes to personal testimonies. I had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for years before I ever got saved. For years I prayed, I went to church, I read my Sunday School lessons, I sang in the youth choir—and then I got saved. You see salvation has to do with trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary—Calvary’s work for you. That’s salvation. These guys at Corinth had all this other stuff.

“Paul’s tells them, ‘Listen, there’s not but one way you got loose from being drug around by all that satanic deception, and the satanic system you were in, and came to the place where you trusted Jesus as the Lord and your Savior, and that’s by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit as He took the Word of God and applied it to your heart.’

“Folks, a man doesn’t just get saved by being religious and all that. Paul says that ‘He hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ Just as Satan works in that unsaved man, God Almighty begins to work in him, and the Holy Spirit of God convicts him of his sin and brings him to the place where he sees himself just for what he is—a lost, helpless, damned and doomed sinner. And he sees the Lord Jesus Christ for what He is—the Savior of sinners—through the preaching of the gospel.”

I’ve met a lot of unsaved people over the years who believe that by doing good things they’ll somehow gain God’s approval even though they don’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

I’ve even had friends suggest to me they expect God will “cut them some slack” because they’ve done something helpful for me, knowing I’m a believer.

What is shocking—and extremely hard for human nature to grasp—is to find out God only responds to an unsaved man’s attempts to be good and do good things on his own with GREATER wrath!

“Instead of responding, ‘Oh, you did something wonderful,’ the justice of God responds with greater wrath,” confirms Jordan. “Paul writes in Romans 2:5 that the ‘impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.’

“You see, man’s attempts to get himself right and straighten up on his own just cause God’s justice to respond in a more positively negative way. It stirs up the wrath of God and treasures up more and more and more punishment.

“Verse six says God ‘will render to every man according to his deeds.” Now here’s what you’re going to get when you deal with the justice of God by your own works: Verse 7 says, ‘To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.’

“If you have absolute perfect righteousness, God says, ‘I’ll give you eternal life.’ That means you patiently continue every day in your life in doing exactly what’s right. The problem is that’s talking about somebody who isn’t any one of us!

Paul goes on to say in Romans 2:8, “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.”

“Peace with God is not just a cessation of againstness; it’s paying the full debt,” says Jordan. “It isn’t, ‘Okay, He’s satisfied now but later on He’s going to whap me in the noggin.’ Its, ‘Hey, the whole issue’s settled forever, and sin and its guilt and its condemnation will never again intrude into my relationship with God.’

“The consequences of sin are completely done away with and the result is quietness, confidence and assurance. And that’s what peace is. When I have peace with God, all fear of ever facing the angry face of God is removed. Man, you talk about something fantastic! That’s what I’ve got because I’ve been justified; I don’t have anything to fear.

“When Paul says we ‘have access by faith,’ that means we have free admission into ‘this grace wherein we stand.’ We have an open pathway to go into the presence of God. We’re unmovable from this grace. We don’t continually seek God’s favor by religious activities. We have a continuing relationship with the justice of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and it doesn’t end. It’s like the Dan Ryan freeway is all yours and there’s no rush hour coming to fight.”