Justified

I talked the day before yesterday about the Discipline author's concept of hell as a place in which we end up because of our own inability to release ourselves from our own concepts of our guilt and sin -- our inadequacies.

We were talking today in Sunday school about justification -- in order to be justified, is repentance necessary. Here is my reasoning.

• Grace is free. There is nothing we can do to earn it and there is nothing we can do to lose it. It is a gift, freely given from God. Grace is what saves us, it is what heals us and brings us to eternal life. It is there for everyone.
• God's grace -- his prevenient grace, his justifying grace and his sanctifying grace -- is at work in all of our lives.
• Our repentance is a fruit of God's work in our lives. We repent because God has led us to it. I don't think that we would respond in that way except for the grace of God.
• Not everyone says yes to God. They are still forgiven; they are still children of God.

Do I think God sends people to hell for not repenting? No. I think we send ourselves there.