As of this writing, the fighting in the Ukraine has been raging for many months. Some words have become prominent in the news reporting done about the war. One such word is “neutralized.”
A news headline might read, AN ENEMY GENERAL HAS BEEN NEUTRALIZED IN A MISSILE ATTACK. Instead of reporting the General was killed in the line of duty, the news says he has been neutralized. It is possible to neutralize acidic or base solutions until you get a pH of seven. But what does it mean to neutralize another human being? I suppose it means to get rid of the threat that they represent.
There is nothing neutral about the death of a human being when immediately after death they will enter either the bliss of heaven or the agony of hell. There is nothing neutral about either of these two places. Heaven will be full of love and joy. Hell will be full of hatred and extreme misery. There will never be a neutralization of either the light of heaven or the darkness of hell. They will go on forever.
Those involved in war tend to treat other human beings, especially the enemy, like objects, instead of treating them as never-dying people on their way to eternity.
There is a real danger in acting this way because it diminishes the worth of a human being. The value of a single person in God’s sight is more than all the material goods in the universe. So that people could be saved, God sent His Son into this world to suffer and die on the cross. You can tell the worth of a person by what God was willing to pay to redeem them. The cost of the redemption of our souls was the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)).
On the cross He made the one atoning sacrifice this world will ever know. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:1414But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)). Whenever we treat either ourselves or any other person like an object instead of a person, we seriously fall short of God’s truth.
How about you? You probably are not in a war zone, but are you treating yourself, and others, as if you have a soul that is precious in the sight of God? He didn’t send His Son into the world because you deserved it. He sent His Son because there was no other way to redeem you.
What Can’t Be Neutralized
God’s love will never be neutralized. Even people who refuse to repent and fail to receive His offer of grace He loves. They may die and go to a lost eternity, but they will never die unloved. And if they die in their sins, the pity of it all is that they had only to look to the Lord Jesus by faith to be saved. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)).
Nearly 2,000 years ago, men tried to neutralize the Lord Jesus. They conspired together to put Him to death.
The plan to neutralize the Lord Jesus didn’t work. He arose victoriously from the grave. He invites sinners to repent of their sins and to believe in His name in order to share in His victory over sin, death and the grave. The plan to neutralize the Lord Jesus was completely foiled, and any attempt today to neutralize the power and love of the Savior in any way, shape or form is also doomed to failure.
In this life there is no neutral ground when it comes to believing in Christ. If you are not for Him, then you are against Him. You can’t be neutral!
“He that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:3030He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. (Matthew 12:30)). To remain in a state of indifference towards the Lord Jesus, neither for Him or against Him, means on the day of judgment God will count you fully as an enemy.
Don’t try to be neutral. Come to Him by faith, if you haven’t yet done so. Then you can love the Lord Jesus with a burning, scorching love for all He has done and live so that you have no regrets!
War isn’t the only way trouble can come. There’s lots more covered in As the Sparks Fly Upward.