On July 8, 1741, British theologian Jonathan Edwards preached a message to his church congregation entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” History records how people literally ran to the altar tearfully calling out to God for forgiveness and to receive Christ as their Saviour - so powerful was the convicting presence of God’s Spirit.
Messages on hell are not popular these days. And yet, hell is part of the teachings of scripture and the “whole” counsel of God.
So much emphasis, however, is put on fire and brimstone that the real eternal worst thing about hell is often lost. And it is this: “But God will punish those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.” (II Thess. 1:8-9; Rev. 20:13-14). The worst thing about hell is to be cut off completely and forever from any sense or intervention whatsoever of the presence of God. Think of it!
Imagine a place in which there is no consciousness of evil or good; right or wrong; no inner pull to avoid evil; no constraining sense of His presence; no sense of God whatsoever. No awareness of His love and willingness to help; no awareness of a God who forgives and desires fellowship with you; no opportunity to call on him for his intervention and help; no peace from His abiding presence. Absolutely no evidence of God. None! You have removed yourself from him totally, “...shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” – forever!
I shudder at the very thought of that reality! More than the quenchless flames of an everlasting hell, this ought to get one running to a place of repentance and faith to embrace God’s gift of salvation through Christ. Don’t you think?
The Good News of the gospel is that this is not God’s plan for us. A “God-less eternity” is NOT God’s divine design for you. God created us for relationship. However, that was destroyed by sin (Isaiah 59:2). To re-establish that relationship, God sent Jesus to take our place and to pay our sin debt completely. Full forgiveness and eternal life are now offered to all who will, by faith, open their lives to Jesus (John 14:6). Our eternity, therefore, becomes our choice.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His one and only son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10). “For God so loved the world (you) that he sent his only Son. That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17).
The worst thing about hell becomes the best thing about heaven - His loving, eternal, never-ending presence (Revelation 21:3). “What is heaven,” Spurgeon poses, “but to be with God, to dwell with him, and to realize that God is mine.”
Be blessed my friend.
Glen (Pitts)
The Barnabas Group / Loads of Love
