Is It Safe?

I watched Marathon Man recently — the movie where Dustin Hoffman is a college student and gets interrogated by a fugitive Nazi dentist who repeatedly asks him “Is it safe?”

This got me thinking about colleges and safe spaces. Safe spaces are a somewhat new development. If a college student feels challenged by an idea they disagree with, they can retreat to a “safe space” where they don’t have to deal with the discomforts of people holding to different ideas. There have even been reports of safe spaces offering coloring books and puppies as a way to help students depressurize from the stress of being exposed to something that offends their sensibilities.

This is interesting because the Bible pretty much contains the most uncomfortable idea in existence — that a person will spend an eternity in hell due to their sins. God’s 10 Commandments show people exactly what God considers sin.

Ever told a lie? Ever stole something, even something as small as someone else’s answer to a test question. Ever take God’s name in vain? Ever look at a person with lust in your heart? Ever hate someone? Those things make even a seemingly “good” person be forced to accept what they are in the eyes of a perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful, holy God: a liar, thief, blasphemer, adulterer and murderer.

Some might protest. How am I a murderer? I never killed anyone.

Check out 1 John 3:15 — anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. God’s standard is absolute perfection. If a person even has a shred of sin in their life and are standing before God on Judgment Day, that shred is enough to earn this chilling pronouncement of damnation from God — depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).

Fortunately, God is not only a righteous judge. He is also compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:8-12).

Rather than leave us lost, God offers us the ultimate safe space in Jesus Christ. Christ’s death on the cross removes all sins from us, so that we may stand blameless in front of God on Judgement Day and hear this: come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world (Matthew 25:34).

As for safe spaces in college, there’s an old saying: if everyone thinks the same, no one thinks at all. Different ideas challenge us to learn and grow, especially in God’s word as we seek His will on such matters. To learn more about such things, check out God Is Your Roommate, available in paperback on Amazon.