Los Angeles is the forgetful city. We don’t often think too much about the past or much more than a few years in our future. I’ve been meditating the last few weeks on the forgotten biblical truth on hell. Hell is one of those things that has been dislodged from the modern pulpit and much more so from modern conversation. If it’s not mentioned in the pulpit, there’s no way it’s going to gain a hearing outside. If the church doesn’t preach hell, the world sure won’t!
Jesus portrays hell as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12). It’s a place devoid of the presence and glory of God. A lot of people think that hell is unfair. But think about this: Hell is simply God saying, “no” to being in His presence. Everybody claims that they have a right to reject God in their life. Everybody intuitively believes that they can walk away from God. But how can you say that you have a right to say, “no” to God and then say God has no right to say “no” to you at the end of your life? Or would you say that you have rights that God doesn’t?
If you accept the premise of hell a lot of things follow:
Only when you understand what you have been saved from can you really appreciate the significance of the idea of salvation. If you don’t have hell what exactly are you saved from? But with the idea of hell we fall on our knees in gratitude that we have saved from the depths of destruction unto a life eternal.
The doctrine of hell also gives us perspective on what is at stake in this life. In Philippians 3 Paul speaks of “enemies of the cross” whose end is destruction. But he never says this casually. He says this with tears in his eyes (vs. 18). So often we have all these relationships with people who are going to hell but we don’t say a word. Instead of weeping for them we laugh with them. Instead of warning them we talk about the last sports game. There are family members and friends who stand on the precipice of disaster and we speak not a word.
I think about these ideas and it drives me to repentance for the shallow and insignificant ways I spend my time. May God revive this truth so long forgotten to his church and his people.
Filed under: Bible
