Sermon Cloud

Am I going to hell?

I was so surprised by the question; I don’t even remember my response.  But the Buddhist on the panel said this life is hell of sorts.  The Mormon said that only really bad people go to a place called hell.  The Rabbi, said that hell is simply non-existence. Interesting that someone asked, interesting that everyone had an answer.

Now if I were asked that question again, I suppose I would say to the question, “Am I going to hell?” I would say, “By God’s grace, all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, are rescued from God’s wrath in hell.”  The answer does presume…

They main question for this message, is ‘why Hell?’  What’s the reason for it?

This has everything to do with the justice of God.  In this world, there are many crimes and evils that are perpetrated.  Every society has developed some penal code for those who break certain laws.  The need for laws exists as soon as two people find out that the other person exists.  Usually the first law is expressed in the following statement, “You’ll hear from my lawyer!”

Whether the world recognizes it or not, the very existence of laws has their origination in God who makes kingly decrees for how all relationships must be governed.  God decreed creation and continues to govern the universe through His providential ordering.  A part of the created order is that the universe would providentially abide by God’s laws of nature.  When we speak of the law of gravity, we should ask, “Who wrote that law?”  “Why do pre-existing rules govern nature?” We also know that blatant violations of the law of gravity creates pain – there are all kinds of cause and effect results that God has written into this universe, and we all know there are consequences for ignoring such laws.

God is also a covenant making God and requires, by law that we live in a way that is proper before Him.  Obedience to God’s covenant brings blessings, and disobedience brings curses.

In speaking of how we treat each other as humans, we should also remember the triune nature of God.  Why?  Because Laws for relationships existed even before creation began because God is in a covenant relationship with himself.  That may sound strange, but the point is that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are in a covenant relationship with each other, and experience the blessing of completely abiding to the “legal terms” of their relationship.

So God doesn’t arbitrarily lay down laws for relationships without any context for why He lays them down.  He is already in relationship within the Trinity.  And every member of the Trinity enjoys the blessings of honoring and abiding by the terms of their covenant relationship (which is explicated in further detail in the Bible.)

My main point here is to say that God lays down the law for everyone and everything and every-being!  Since all of creation is under his rule, and since every being created is a part of that creation, we all have a covenant relationship with God. If someone transgresses His law, they are violating God’s honor, rule, and relationship and such rebellion is tantamount to a coup or similar to a hostile takeover of God’s kingdom.

In western civilizations we have a penal code which states that certain violations of the law require a just sentence or punishment. 

If someone throws a snowball at a friend.  Not a major infraction.  If someone throws a snowball at a school teacher.  Some type of discipline might be enacted.  If someone throws a snowball at a police officer.  That person may be subject to a charge of assault.  If someone throws a snowball at the President of the United States – That could become Defcon 5!  That will be the last shot they ever make because the Secret Service will get blizzard on that person, and who knows what kind of legal trouble they will be in.

The point of this illustration is God is the Highest, Purest, and Most Important Ruler of creation.  To actively subjugate His rule by violating His law will result in the administration of the stiffest penalties.

So, if we have violated God’s law, what kind of punishment is required for the infinite and absolute ruler?  Only an infinite and absolute penalty!

Now in our society, we lock people up in jail if they are criminals.  In OT Israel however, the majority of criminals were subject only to two verdicts – death or paying restitution.  Those who couldn’t pay restitution became slaves in order to pay off their debt.  There wasn’t this, “Lock him up in the hoosgow.”  That was a foreign invention. 

And yet the topic of hell is a discussion about a place where people will spend eternity in a place that sounds mostly like jail.  Why?  Well, let me answer with a bit of Gospel here.  First of all, only Jesus Christ can pay our restitution to God because he is also himself, infinite and absolutely able to provide for the wages of sin through his perfect sacrifice.  Additionally, the death that Jesus dies, also satisfies the demands of the perfect law of God.

Those who do not have Jesus Christ as their redeemer will pay for their violations of God’s laws with their own death and will live as a debtor to God for all eternity; not in a debtor prison persue; but in an existence where freedom will never be know. God as King and Judge has the absolute right as the sovereign of the universe to administer this kind of Justice; and in review, this is the first reason for Hell – Hell is the just penalty for those who violate God’s commands and sense these violations amount to the rebellion against the most pure, faithful, righteous, and loving being of the universe – he will execute pure, faithful, righteous, and judgment on those who hate Him – and because God loves justice, He will execute it to His glory.

This is the reason again for Free Will.  We said last week that though we humans are not absolutely free to act contrary to our nature, we are legally and philosophically able to freely choose that which is morally good and right in obedience to God’s law – and since we do not obey God’s law with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, while at the SAME EXACT TIME WE demand justice when our wills are violated; God will do the same for those who care not for the justice of God.

So your philosophical free will will burn in my theological hell.

So the first reason for Hell, for God to establish justice.  The judgments of hell will remove every doubt among those who question whether or not God absolutely rules this universe.  It is in the judgment of God that the righteous will be vindicated; that those who are evil will be justly rewarded according to how they lived their lives; and where people who refused to love God and His laws will dwell for an eternity while being cognitively aware of how important and valuable their life was as a bearer of God’s image – but they chose instead to refuse to live out their true destiny of bringing glory to God; so their just punishment for their violations of God’s justice, will finally bring the glory to God which He alone deserves.

^NIV Psalm 76:10 Surely your wrath against men brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

This leads to my second point for the reason for Hell.  Because we DO bear the Imago Dei, the Image of God.  Now why would God throw His very image into Hell?

Simply because we are not things or objects, we are eternal beings possessing minds, wills, emotions, and a spiritual nature.  Because of the totality of our nature we are eternally valuable  as a representation of God’s glorious character and deeds.  I know it might sound strange to hear that God is really honoring us by exiling rebellious beings to a torturous domain – but this is a clear admonition that we are not random toys or useless objects created only to flame the fires of hell!  We are uniquely important and eternally valuable, just as the angels are, but even more so than they because of the image we bear.  God honors our individuality and preserves it for all eternity because of that value; although still a recipient of God’s wrath.

Because of this truth, I reject every creative and lame way to explain away hell that I have heard.  I even reject every creative way to explain away hell that I haven’t heard yet that describes hell as something that is remotely bearable or temporary.

I have found that every non-Christian religion ignores the awful terror of eternal punishment, and prefers to believe in some scheme of total annihilation, or temporary punishment, or controlling fearful minds , or everyone really goes to heaven; just some will enjoy it more than others. 

I have heard plenty of people make fun of the “Hell fire and brimstone” preaching because the human conception of the most gut wrenching, teeth gnashing, painful existence for all eternity is humanly unpalatable to consider.  I understand this truth, and people throughout all ages have wrestled with the weight of what Hell represents.  In our day – we mention the word Hell far to cavalierly.  That word should send shudders down our core when we consider the reality by which it is portrayed in the Bible.

But let me respond again with a little Gospel here:  When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prayed and pleaded with God saying, “Let this cup pass before me.”  We know what kind of cup to which he was referring.  He did not want to drink the bitter gall of God’s fury and wrath that He has stored up for rebellious Israel and everyone who refuses to live as an obedient subject of the King of the Universe.

That bitter cup seems to include Jesus’ betrayal, judgment, torture, execution, wrath of God, death and burial – which is in essence Hell, and a preferred way of understanding the words of the Apostles Creed.  Jesus did not enter into the final abode for those destined to receive God’s judgment; but Jesus did receive in himself, both body and soul, God’s judgment as the sacrificial lamb sent to take away the sins of the world.  Jesus knew that the cup that he had to drink would be the full brunt of God’s hatred of image breakers and rebels to His rule.

à The Bible describes the final judgment and eternal estate as the body and soul being reunited and placed in a spatial dimension forever.  Both heaven and hell are described as such – this means that our eternal futures will be spent in a reality that is very physical and we will appreciate this as life full of physical sensations!

But some of the most painful realities of life are not those that afflict my flesh, but upon my identity, my person, my soul, who I am… realities such as betrayal, alienation, loneliness, humiliation, shame, disrespect, mockery, unfounded prejudice, condemnation, judgment, hostility, and hatred are all dark and sinister realities that we feel in ways that are not physical, but felt in the soul.  When Jesus took our place – in his body and soul, he experienced this kind of hellishness so that those who would believe in him would never have to experience them.  And all those who do not trust in Christ as their savior, will for all eternity suffer with these internal realities at the hand of God – and THAT will be hell!

SO the first reason for Hell is for God’s justice to be revealed, secondly because we are not disposable objects but bear the Image of God, and the third reason for hell is to appreciate the greatness of salvation!

Those who are saved by Amazing Grace realize that God has saved wretches who in reality deserve Hell.  But God has intervened and not only saved us from something, He has saved us FOR something, and that is for a future covenant relationship where we will enjoy communion with God and fellow saints, whereas hell is described as a place of loss, confusion, and unmet desires.

Hell then is a place of contrasts when compared to the glories of heaven.  This is important to us when we go through unbearable trials and we say to ourselves, “This is hell!”  I understand that sentiment, life can be a bunch of rotten bananas.  Even the Scriptures speak of terrible experiences that God’s people endure – and they only remain bearable because of the blessed hope and inheritance of the believer.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Now I don’t want to trivialize Heaven and say that we will appreciate it more because we know of the alternative.  But what I am saying is that in this life; we will endure trials, testing, temptations, and many times at the hands of people who seem to be emissaries of the Devil himself.  And before we doubt and swerve into disobedience, we need to consider the consequences of our actions.

I’ll be honest with you that being a Christian was at first, a reasonable and clear option for me because I just did not want to go to hell.  I would put up with heaven because it was way better than hell.

Today, I will admit to you, that I am far more enamored and excited as a Christian because I am soooo looking forward to the restored and redeemed reality of heaven.  Yes, there IS too much hell here when I survey the landscape and the downward slide of society.  But my desire is to reflect the glorious truth of God who has promised to prepare a place for me. 

SO, I am equally excited to also share with people that this world is not the end of the story, but that God has something greater for those who love and trust Him.

And so where Hell is described as a smoldering garbage dump, heaven is described as glorious kingdom

Where Hell is described as a place of perpetual darkness, heaven is described as dwelling of eternal light

Where Hell is described as a place of shackles and torture, heaven is described as a home for healing and restoration

Where Hell is described as wilderness wandering, heaven is described as our Sabbath rest

Where Hell is described as an unquenchable fire, heaven is described as a new heaven and earth

Where Hell is described as lake of fire, heaven is described as a paradise with streams of living water

Where Hell is described as banishment from God’s kingdom, heaven is described as the place where God’s Glory dwells with everyone purified by the work of Christ!

2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

² For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

³ if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

⁴ For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

⁵ He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

⁶ So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸ Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁹ So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

¹¹ Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.