Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Two Kinds of People




There are times when things culminate into simple distinctions. In the climax of the classic Clint Eastwood Western film “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly,” Blondie (Clint’s character) and Turco (Eli Wallach’s character) are finally standing near the buried treasure they have been looking for, when Blondie says to Turco:

“You see in this world there are two kinds of people my friend: those with loaded guns and those who dig.” – “You dig.”

Realizing his position, Turco picks up a shovel and starts digging.

In the Bible, Jesus tells Nicodemus, a Pharisee, that at the climax of history on the last day, there will be two kinds of people. In the most famous verse in the Bible, Jesus says:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 ESV)

In this verse, Jesus tells us who those two kinds of people are: there will be those who have faith and believe in Jesus, which will ultimately lead them to having eternal life, and there are those without faith or belief who will perish eternally. Jesus is saying believers can look forward to a new eternal life while unbelievers can look forward to eternal spiritual death.

Later on, Jesus further describes these two kinds of people and what will happen to them:

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:24-29)

Jesus said that the person who believes will be resurrected to life, the other kind of person (those who do not believe) is technically dead already and will be resurrected to judgment.

The question we should be asking is: which of these two kinds of people are we? I pray that you would consider Jesus Christ, have faith and believe in him as the Son of God who came to save us from our sins.

As Jesus said:


“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)