I know it sounds weird, but these last few weeks I’ve found that meditating on scriptural passages relating to both hell and God’s goodness is edifying. It’s helped me better understand both what hell is like and who God is. Meditating on hell has given me a greater awareness of God’s mercy on me. It has also increased my burden for the lost and my desire to see more people saved from judgment. And combining the topic of hell with the topic of God’s goodness in my meditations has given me a much better understanding of the process of judgment; specifically, how fair God is when he judges people.
Here are some thoughts about the fairness of hell:
- God’s judgement is fair because God uses one of us to judge all of us. That’s right. God uses a human being to judge human beings. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is both God and man – “very God and very man.” True, Jesus Christ in his humanity is now and always will be in his glorified state, as described in Revelation 1. But his humanity is still truly human.
“For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:31 (Italics mine.)
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge…” 2 Timothy 4:1
- God’s judgement is fair because God uses our own relative standard of right and wrong instead of his absolute standard of pure holiness when he judges us. No matter how distorted by sin it may be, everyone has a moral standard. Our sense of right and wrong is one of our key defining traits as humans, part of the image of God stamped on every person’s psyche. The problem is that we tend to apply our standard to others and yet not obey it ourselves. We give ourselves a pass. Unfortunately, God doesn’t. On Judgement Day, God will show us how we have judged others, but then committed the same transgressions ourselves.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:1-2
- God’s judgement is fair because it is not just God who condemns us, but we ourselves. In judging, God simply applies our condemnation of others to ourselves.
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things….So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” Romans 2:1, 3
It’s a shame that pastors have become so timid on the topic of hell. In doing so, we have allowed the caricature of a mean and merciless God who arbitrarily, and equally punishes everyone the same way forever to permeate our culture. It’s time we disabuse non-Christians of this straw man rejection of Christianity. It’s time to speak up. It’s time to speak the truth.
It’s time to start preaching on hell.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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