Not to Jesus. You may think you’re fooling others—maybe you are, and I’m not one to condemn that—but you’re not fooling Jesus. He is neither surprised nor disappointed. Turns out he’s a fan of the truth—all truth, even that truth about yourself that you’d rather not be true.
Your disbelief is not an eternal disqualifier. It’s not game over. The scriptures seem to say again and again, in thousands of different ways, that there is always hope. Always an opportunity for change. Always the wide open gates of God’s City.
Take this one example: Judas Iscariot. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus knew from the beginning who would betray him. And yet for three years Jesus accepted Judas, taught him, empowered him, loved him, and even up until the tragic end held out hope that he might make a turn for the better.
Of course, some well-meaning Bible reader will try to point out that Jesus kept Judas around just because he needed a betrayer, in order to fulfill some prophecy or something. Maybe so. But that honestly just sounds too simplistic to me. I think it ignores both the humanity and divine love of Jesus. I think Jesus never kicked Judas out of the inner circle because he was hoping that the seeds he was sowing into him might come to flourish and fruit after all.
Jesus won’t kick you out. He still welcomes you to follow him, and even serve alongside him, with your doubts and disbelief and all.
You, of course, can choose to bail at any moment. But even then, you can’t cover your tracks well enough for the hound of heaven to lose your scent.
