Luke 16:27-31
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Until someone hears the Law, they will not receive the Gospel. Until someone believes the bad news, they cannot embrace the Good News. The Good News is only good if that bad news is actually true. If everyone goes to a better place when they die, the Good News that Jesus living the life you should have led in your place for your righteousness and dying the death you should have died in your place for your sins is rendered unnecessary at best, overkill at worst.
If someone will not listen to the Law of Moses or the prophecies of the Prophets, which are all bad news for sinful people (God has standards... and you haven't kept them; Only God can judge you... and He's most definitely going to) then they will not receive the Good News of the resurrection. The resurrection's appeal is that someone had to die for sin. If you don't agree that you deserve to die, the Good News that someone else died for you is meaningless.
Do not lead with grace.
Do not fish with mercy.
Grace and mercy only make sense if they feel the sting of the Law hooking their lip.
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