why should we try to avoid punishment?

Mudley asks...


I've asked you this before, but have yet to get an answer:

If all of us, including you, are evil wicked sinners that deserve to burn in hell for our wickedness, why should we try to avoid the punishment we so rightly deserve?

If you really believe that we deserve this punishment, why would you try to avoid it?

@Mudley

Your question deserves an answer, I'm kind of surprised no one offered you one. It is an eminently reasonable question.

The answer is that God desires it. We accept what God offers because it is what God wants.


God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (ESV)

He wants not only us but everyone saved 1 Timothy 2:4 (The Message)

God our Savior, who wishes all men to be saved 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (Amplified Bible)


God does not want anything to come between us and Him. And that anything includes our sin. Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice, because it is what God desired, not because it is something I desired. (If God had not wanted it, Jesus would not have offered himself as a sacrifice.)

He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Matthew 22:41-42 (NIV)

(By "this cup", Jesus refers here to the sacrifice he is about to make; his arrest, trial and execution.)

It's not about us trying to avoid punishment, or us trying to evade justice. It's pointless to even try, because judgment is as inevitable as death.

There is no amount of effort, no matter how mightily we try, or how valiant our attempt, we are utterly unable to save ourselves.

It is only what God desires and by what God has done that we are saved.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Merry Christmas, Mudley!