Google Maps™ once directed our family down a “road less traveled.” The road continued to narrow until we finally came upon a sign reading:

You cannot make this stuff up! I would have taken a photo of the sign, but I didn’t want any incriminating evidence on my body if something went wrong. The Search and Rescue Team (“SRT”) stays busy in that area apparently. 

Before going any further, stop and read John 3:31-36 in either the NASB or the ESV. This passage teaches us about what theologians call the exclusivity of Christ. Jesus claims He is the only way to God. This teaching was no more popular in Jesus’ day than it is in ours. Is the anger over this teaching justified? Is it “fair” that God requires we come to Him through Jesus? Let’s think about that.

SRT’s are dispatched to wilderness areas when people go missing. When a SRT comes upon the way­ward traveller, does SRT’s arrival make the person lost? Of course not, the person was lost before. Suppose the lost person refuses SRT’s aid, flees into the wilderness, and dies… still lost. Would you blame SRT and say, “If SRT hadn’t gone searching, they would have been okay!” No. The person should have turned from their way and followed SRT out of the wilderness.

Similarly, Jesus came to rescue mankind from his sinful rebellion. He did not make men and women lost. We were lost before. Indeed, the prophet Isaiah tells us we were hopelessly separated from our Creator because of our rebellion:

Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

(Isaiah 59:1-2, NASB)

Not only that but we were living under God’s condemnation for our rebellion. If a rebel flees when Jesus shows up, he remains lost and under judgment as Apostle John says, “he who does not obey the Son will not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36) In other words, the wrath of God was upon the person when Jesus initiated His rescue mission to remove it. If the person rejects Jesus, God’s wrath remains.

It would be silly to blame Jesus for making the rebel lost, but many people do. We are rebels, and rebels, by nature, resent being told they are wrong. We also resent bringing our beliefs into conformity with the truth. This resentment is not a condemnation of the truth, however, but evidence of the rebellion which Jesus beckons them to turn from.

The man or woman who turns back and follows Jesus is rewarded, as John writes earlier in the same verse. Here is the whole verse:

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

(John 3:36, NASB)

So we cannot blame Jesus for our lostness or the wrath we are under. If you have not done so yet, heed the warning sign. Turn back and follow Jesus!