The Doctrine of Hell

             https://proyota.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-reality-of-heaven-and-hell.html

                 

                                                        THE REALITY OF HELL

This article first appeared in the Effective Evangelism column of the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL, volume 19, number 03 (1997). The full text of this article in PDF format can be obtained by clicking here. For further information or to subscribe to the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL go to: http://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/

Is the doctrine of hell a hindrance or a help in witnessing? Many evangelicals are ashamed of this biblical doctrine, viewing it as a blemish to be covered up by the cosmetic of divine love. But this dishonors God’s Word. Jesus warned His hearers of the eternal punishment awaiting those who reject Him (Matt. 13:40-42; 25:46). If we clearly and compassionately expound the truth about hell, we may be surprised to find people responding to it in faith.

The doctrine of hell does not stand alone as a kind of ancient Christian horror story. Rather, hell is inseparable from three other interrelated biblical truths: human sin, God’s holiness, and the cross of Christ.

In a relativistic culture, the very concept of sin must be elucidated and defended vigorously. If morality is relative to each person, then there is no higher moral standard one can meet or break. But as C. S. Lewis argued in Mere Christianity and The Abolition of Man, the idea of an objective moral law is inescapable. When we are snubbed or exploited, we call out for justice. When we encounter people of grit and grace, we praise them as moral examples. Our conscience is more than mere instinct or social conditioning. Yet because there is often a great gap between our ideals and actions, we suffer guilt and regret. Despite our denials and excuses, our consciences dog us throughout our days.

Christianity explains the global stain of human guilt by placing it in a theological framework that both sharpens its sting and makes relief possible. Sin is a moral condition that offends the holy God and removes us from His approval.

While much modern psychology assures us that guilt can be gutted through humanistic methods, the Gospel faces the problem head-on. Guilt is real because we have violated the standards of goodness. Left to ourselves, we can do nothing to undo our wrongs. Forgiving ourselves is never sufficient because we are in no position to exonerate the guilty party — anymore than a murderer can grant himself or herself a stay of execution.

Lawbreakers deserve punishment. But is hell too extreme? The great American theologian Jonathan Edwards took this question up in his essay, “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners.” Edwards argued that because God is “a Being of infinite greatness, majesty, and glory,” He is therefore “infinitely honorable” and worthy of absolute obedience. “Sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and deserving of infinite punishment.”

Edwards’s much maligned but solidly biblical sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” presses home the point that without Christ we have no grounds for confidence and every reason to fear hell. God, who is angry with sin, could justifiably send the unrepentant sinner to hell at any moment. Jesus Himself warned, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).

To fathom the horror of sin and the holiness of God we must kneel before the cross of Christ. While the Scriptures command us to be like Christ, this is never presented as the basis of our salvation. Christ’s sinless perfection is impossible for us to attain, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Because Jesus flawlessly obeyed God’s moral law in our place, He is uniquely qualified to be our Savior. On the cross, Christ offered Himself to the Father as a spotless sacrifice for our sin.

Sin against God is so severe that only the death of the sinless Son of God could atone for it. We see the reality of hell when the crucified Christ calls out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Paul explained, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

In the cross of Christ the sinfulness of sin, the holiness of God, and the reality of hell are all writ large with the blood of the Lamb. Only through Christ taking on our hell through His death could sinners be reconciled to a holy God. Once this is understood, hell takes on a clarity not otherwise perceived. Apart from the cross, there is no hope for forgiveness or reconciliation. Hell is the only alternative.

Only by understanding hell can we grasp the immensity of God’s love. God’s love took His Son to the hell of the cross for our sake. This is a costly love, a bloody love, that has no parallel in any of the world’s religions. Although other religions (particularly Islam) threaten hell, none offer the sure deliverance from it that Christianity offers through the sacrificial love of God Himself.

In this rich theological context, we can courageously incorporate the doctrine of hell at the heart of our evangelistic enterprise. Jesus asked what a person’s life would be worth if he or she were to gain the whole world but forfeit his or her very soul (Matt. 16:26). Hell is the loss of the soul, a reality so terrible that Scripture uses a variety of ways to describe it. The graphic reports of hell in Scripture — such as the abyss (Rev. 9:1-11), the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14), the blackest darkness (Jude 13), the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30) — disclose the stark reality of eternal separation from God.

We can apply these truths in several ways. First, we should encourage biblical preaching and teaching on hell set in its proper theological setting and presented with prayer and compassion. As Francis Schaeffer said, the doctrine of hell must be taught “with tears.” When I gave a campus lecture on the New Age view of Christ, I emphasized that the biblical Christ came to save people from hell. This did not repulse people, even though it was a secular campus. Students pondered what was said and many stayed to ask questions after the lecture.

Second, our everyday witness must involve a warning as well as a welcome. We welcome people to find eternal life in Christ, but we must also warn them of the eternal death awaiting those who reject the Gospel. Pascal said, “Between heaven and hell is only this life, which is the most fragile thing in the world.” Given the biblical warnings about hell, the unbelievers end up betting their eternity that Christianity is a lie. We should challenge people to investigate intently the claims of Christianity, considering all there is to gain and all there is to lose.

Third, we must beseech God to alert both our non-Christian friends and the church at large to the reality of hell. Without this doctrine firmly in place, Christians will lose their evangelistic edge. And without a proper fear of God’s holiness, no one should be expected to come to Christ for His gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

     

The Doctrine of Hell

I spent some time in October examining eternity and writing on how our belief in the existence of heaven should shape the decisions we make in everyday life. You can read those Articles here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5.

I can’t write about the doctrine of eternity and only discuss heaven, though, because the Bible teaches two significant things that are absolutely clear and unavoidable. First, the Bible teaches that humanity is marching toward an inescapable moment of judgment. Second, the Bible teaches that a life of unrepentant spiritual adultery results in unending torment.

Unfortunately, these two Biblical teachings - defined simply as the doctrine of hell - have become uncomfortable teachings in the church, often resulting in theological debate. They’ve been watered down and treated like the embarrassing uncle of the family that we want to hide from the public.

I have a theory as to why this has happened: we neither take the holiness of God seriously or the sinfulness of sin seriously. If we meditated on the stunning nature of the absolute perfection of God, and if we meditated on the dark, horrendous, heinous, ugliness of our sin, I’m deeply persuaded that we would have a different response to what the Bible says about hell and judgment.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus talks about hell and the final judgment. I won’t include the entire passage here for the sake of space, but let me reference a few key phrases: "He [the Son of Man] will sit on his glorious throne [...] and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats [...] Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels [...] And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

There are 3 principles of morality that you need to grasp in this passage:

1. Moral Elasticity

According to Christ, there's no such thing as moral elasticity. In other words, there's no middle ground when it comes to your desires, actions, and words. Just like there are goats on the left and sheep on the right and nothing in between, there are wrong and sinful decisions that disobey God and there are right and holy decisions that glorify God and nothing in between. You live in a world of right and wrong; every decision you make is moral and falls into one of those two buckets. There is no middle bucket.

2. Moral Specificity

If you live in a world of right and wrong, then there has to be a definition for what is right and what is wrong. The Bible never provides an opportunity for moral relativism to exist, where everyone can define what they think is right and wrong. Rather, this passage teaches us that only One has defined the difference between right and wrong - the Son of Man - and we have been given that definition in the Word of God.

3. Moral Verticality

Finally, every moral choice in this life has vertical implications. You never make a decision that only affects another person; everything you desire, say, and do is an affront against or a praise to the Lord. When you scream at your spouse or cheat a co-worker, you're not only sinning horizontally against another human - you're sinning vertically against the God.

The best summary of this principle is found in Psalm 51:4, when David says, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." David did horrible things to Uriah and Bathsheba, but before he confessed of his horizontal sin, he knew that he needed to confess of his vertical sin - spiritual adultery against God.

5 APPLICATIONS FROM THE DOCTRINE OF HELL

Maybe you're reading this Article and thinking, "Paul, I already believe this about hell and judgment." Praise God that your brain is theologically aware, but what about your heart? Here are 5 things that your heart should be producing every day when it meditates on the doctrine of hell:

1. The doctrine of hell should produce grief. It should break your heart that there are those living with or around you who are marching towards a God-separated eternal punishment. You cannot celebrate the reality of heaven without grieving over the reality of hell. Does your heart grieve over those who are perishing?

2. The doctrine of hell should produce zeal. If the doctrine of hell produces grief, it also must produce zeal to share the Gospel of rescuing grace with those who are perishing. Day after day you brush shoulders with people marching towards doom, and you've been sovereignly positioned by God to brush shoulders with them. Is your heart zealous to share the Gospel?

3. The doctrine of hell should produce thankfulness. You should never take pleasure in the death of wicked people (Ezekiel 18:23), but you should be thankful that final justice is coming. Is your heart broken by the injustice that occurs everyday in your world? Does your heart cry out, "Lord, how long until the pain of this world is no more?"

4. The doctrine of hell should produce celebration. You should daily celebrate the fact that you're not marching towards hell, but this celebration should not be self-righteous or proud. You could never behave your way out of hell. It's only by the grace of God that you became aware of your sin, desire to live a righteous life, and have the ability to make God-glorifying moral decisions.

5. The doctrine of hell should produce prioritization. I said this earlier in my series - eternity reminds us of what is truly important in this life. When you meditate on the reality of heaven and hell, you will rearrange your value system. A believer who meditates daily on the doctrine of hell will invest much more into the Kingdom of God than the kingdom of self.

A FINAL THOUGHT

I'll be honest - I don't wake up every morning and immediately meditate on the doctrine of hell. My heart often meditates on what I'll have for breakfast and what the weather outside is doing! My selfish heart is not naturally captivated by grief and zeal for the lost.

But here's the beautiful thing about God's grace. The same grace that saved me and you from eternal damnation will greet us every morning. It will remind us that hell exists, it will produce in us a desire to live an eternally-focused life, and it will give us the desire and ability to act accordingly. Confess your need for that grace once again, and watch what God will do!