Ezra 1, Big Idea 4

4) God is not tolerant!

Cyrus was not a true believer in God. He was a mere instrument who was used for a good purpose; however, due to his unbelief, God didn’t know him (Isaiah 45:4), and therefore, though he was good, is not saved.

God does not think that if you do the best you can on whatever path you choose to take that you deserve eternal life – as if He were some kind of self-help guru trying to enrich your disobedient life. No, He is holy, and to disregard this is to spit in the face of your Creator. It is roughly equivalent to having loving parents who desire nothing but good for you, and have worked endlessly to that end, and you say to them that they are as good as dead to you. No, God does not tolerate sin. He loves diversity – people from every tongue, tribe, and nation are His children; but He upholds the truth and despises what is false.

Romans 2:5-11 puts it this way:

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

To say, “I do good, the very best I can; so I should get eternal life” is just silly. God’s response to that is no one is good (Romans 3:10-12), and the good that you think you do is equivalent to a soiled menstrual rag (Isaiah 64:6). Also, we can only be righteous if regenerated and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus. It is sobering to know that God will judge everybody’s actions, and that the standard for heaven is perfection. How assuring it is, as Christians, to know that Jesus merits our eternal destinies, and not ourselves. How assuring it is to know that when we are judged for our works, it is for reward, not destination (1 Corinthians 3:10-12). How foolish it is to assume tolerance on a God who does all things for the glory of His name when we do otherwise.