by Chad Lewis on May 2, 2006
A time is coming when the blinders will be taken off of our eyes. During the day when we see God, we will not be able to stand on our feet. As every knee bows and every tongue confesses, the entire creation will be humbled and the reality of sin and its’ consequences will be seen in bold light.
We often trivialize sin. My attitude has too often been to take sin lightly in my life and in others lives. However, my heart has been shaken as I have been meditating on sin and the ramifications of it. Why does hell exist? Why is it such a horrible place? Well, if sin is no big deal, hell would not have to exist. When we think of the horror of hell we need to tie with it the horrific nature of sin.
When we see in Scripture that we will fall on our faces before God and confess that Jesus is Lord, it would be safe to say that two scenarios will be going on. Both deal with the realization of who we were. As we see God in His glory, I believe that possibly we will be able to see the depth of our sin and the effects that it had in us, towards others, and most importantly toward God. To those who are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, an unparalleled sense of joy and gratitude will enter that we will not get over for all of eternity. Our sins are forgiven and God treats our sin as forgotten. Not only that, He has adopted us as sons and daughters. We will never get over this. However, the second scenario is as ghastly as the first is glorious.
To those who did not accept the sacrifice of Christ and make Him Lord of their life, the reality of their sinfulness will hit them with the weight of eternity. What they once took so flippantly will be exposed and they will see how horrible their sinfulness was and see the eternity waiting for them.
This past week I heard about “The Weight of Glory” written by C.S. Lewis. He wrote that no one is an ordinary person. If you could see what that person will be in eternity, you would know they are not ordinary. For some, they will be so glorious and brilliant that you would wonder if they were an angel from heaven. For others, they will be so hideous and dark that you might suspect them to be a demon from hell.
With all these things in mind, let us rejoice that a way has been made so that we might be reconciled to God. Let us seek God’s face and realize how lovely He is. Even though it is important to meditate on our depravity and sinfulness, their comes a point that we need to lift our eyes to the Father. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. The way to stop sinning is not to try to control your sin. The way we sin less is by filling ourselves with something greater than our sin. That something greater is… you know it – God. Seek His face while He may be found in this life.
by Chad Lewis on November 30, 2005
If one believes that the Bible is God’s Word, it is not an option to set parts of it’s contents to the side. Because of the stark teachings on hell in Scripture, many have done just that. The argument rings out, “How can an enlightened society believe in an eternal punishment described by fire and suffering?” And though many Christians sheepishly simply answer that it is in the Bible, they secretly agree with the skeptic.
It is not hard for me to understand why. As compassionate people, we cannot imagine the thought of some sweet old lady or some nice young man being punished for eternity for a few wrong things they did on earth. However, we are not even scratching the surface theologically by thinking such shallow thoughts concerning God, hell and the true state of our depravity. Let’s take a moment to go deeper and imagine some foundational truths concerning the true nature of humans.
As I type, I watch my morning apple turn brown as I take bites out of it. If left uneaten, it will soon shrivel up and will eventually rot. A person’s soul is not much different. Excuse the apple analogy, but I will take it a few steps further.
As the apple is covered with the skin, all humans experience God’s common grace (common to all living beings). This is not the grace that leads to salvation (special grace that awakens the dead heart and yields new life), this common grace is described in Matthew as Jesus challenges the people to love their neighbors. He says concerning the Father, “…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt 5:45-46 NASU)
This common grace allows all humans to be capable of loving others and receiving love. This common grace keeps us from killing each other and riots breaking out in the streets everyday. With the recent looting in New Orleans, we should stop and wonder why this doesn’t happen more often. The thought in Hebrews is that if God stopped speaking us into existance at any moment, we would cease to exist. The very thought that we can experience life, eat food, feel the warmth of the sun, and so many other things is based completely on the goodness of God.
So we return to the little old lady and the nice young man who are not believers. The destination of their souls, apart from coming to Christ, is eternal damnation. Why? Because all the good that exists in them is simply a gift from God. If God were to remove His common grace from their lives, their sin would instantly consume them and the results might be something worse than Hitler or Stalin.
The dish washing philosopher/theologian Brother Lawrence said that he was not shocked at how evil the world was. He was shocked that it was not worse. When we consider the total depravity of man and what we are all capable of apart from God’s grace, we should shudder at what the status of the world might really be.
So the older lady and young man live what seem to be good lives. However, at judgment, the truth is revealed and they have no ground to stand upon. Their goodness was like filthy rags and the sin compiled in one day would be enough for eternal punishment. They will see that any good they did was a gift from God while they are held accountable for all their wicked deeds.
It is my humble opinion that as sin takes complete control in hell, the end result will be something so hideous and wicked that the soul will look nothing like it did upon earth. I can imagine that these souls will appear like Satan himself in that they will be totally consumed with evil as eternity begins. The wickedness of Hitler on earth might not be able to match the tamest soul in hell as God’s grace is removed.
With all this said, how can we rejoice in the midst of such terrible and frightening thoughts? I will close with the words of the Apostle Paul. Read these words and know that we can rejoice for God has made a way!
Rom 5:6-11
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
NASU
by Chad Lewis on November 18, 2005
Bertrand Russell was a famous writer and thinker throughout the previous century. He was not a supporter of any religion as he felt they contributed to many ills in society. The following is an excerpt from an essay he wrote outlining the reasons he was not a Christian.
When considering the doctrine of hell preached by Jesus, Bertrand Russell states, “I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture; and the Christ of the Gospels, if you could take Him as His chroniclers represent Him, would certainly have to be considered partly responsible for that.”
Though I have many problems with the way Professor Russell draws his conclusions from Scripture, I will simply discuss the statement above.
Before Christ came into the world, did cruelty not already exist? People were so wicked that human sacrifices to pagan gods took place on a regular basis? Many temples were filled with forced prostitution for the purpose of worshiping other gods. Cruelty has existed since the Fall of humans. Sin and cruelty go hand in hand.
Since Russell holds to the presupposition that hell does not exist, his statements follow suit. If this is true and hell is not real, then Christ’s teachings are nothing more than spouted lies with horrible consequences. But if hell is reality, Jesus Christ would be the most unloving being in the universe to not declare this truth from the top of his lungs.
If a train were speeding towards a collapsed bridge, would a man be praised by keeping his mouth shut? If asked later why he did not speak, he might say, “I did not want to scare the conductor or the people in the train. Can you imagine the panic?”
Would we not call this man a fool and a murderer? The most loving thing possible would be to proclaim the reality of what is to come for the passengers unless the train stops and then hope they stop in time.
My presuppositions are clear. I do believe hell is a real place and that a divine Jesus Christ spoke truth in love. He came to make a way for this cruel world. He warned about impending judgment and then opened the closed door to be reconciled to a holy God.
He did not stop at saying hell is a real and miserable place. He came to suffer, bleed and die. He came to bear the wrath of God so we would not have to spend eternity in hell. Why did he do this? Because it was God’s perfect plan! It gave him pleasure to redeem a wayward people to himself. It is by his good graces that he calls us to come to him.
This is an excerpt from a song by Stuart Townend. It clearly depicts the Gospel message.
In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live
And the most gentle and kind Savior sings to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Our postmodern generation gags on the doctrine of hell for many reasons. I would like to address some of these reasons next week. Thanks for reading and may you be blessed as you consider the marvelous grace that is so richly lavished on us each day.
