There is, I think, within all human beings the tendency to believe that if we ignore a truth, it will simply go away. I can remember my grandfather who refused to write a will because he was firmly convinced that, if he wrote one, he would die. His not writing it was his way of trying to assure that he wouldn’t die. Of course, one day, he finally did. Nothing will stave off death; it is a certainty of life.
But there is more to it. Death isn’t simply a transition to another life similar to this nor is it, as some would believe, simply ceasing to exist. Death is that event which takes us out of time and places us into eternity. But before our eternal destiny is determined, we will all face the judgment of God. "People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27 NIV). The issue isn’t whether or not we will die or whether or not we will face judgment. Those two events are guaranteed facts of life for every human being. It doesn’t matter what we believe. It doesn’t matter how much we refuse to face it. At some future point, we will experience those two events.
The question then becomes what will happen at the judgment. If we have faith in the salvation of the Lord Jesus by acknowledging that we are sinners and that He has paid the penalty for our sins, then we will be saved! Saved from what? Saved from eternal damnation in hell. Saved from eternal suffering. But if we are among those who refuse to surrender to the Lord, then our judgment (and eternity) will be totally different. We will be condemned forever. The Greek word translated here "destroyed" doesn’t mean that our souls will cease to exist, but rather that our state of well-being will totally and completely cease. The Lord Jesus gave one description of hell as this: "[They] will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:12b NIV). Teeth gnashing is the act of tightening one’s jaw so much that the teeth grind against each other and the jaw muscles twitch. It is the state of complete and absolute unending agony. And that agony will have no relief, no respite. It will continue forever.
That is hell.
As believers, if we continue to persevere in our faith, we don’t need to fear the judgment. The Lord Jesus has already stood in our place and paid the penalty for our sins. We can approach God with complete confidence (Ephesians 3:12) because of what Jesus did for us. But daily we need to continually speak out the truth of eternity to those who aren’t believers. If they refuse the Lord Jesus, their fates are horrific beyond imagination. We need to love them enough to look past their rejections and continue to tell them about how much God loves them. Because one day, we will all face the judgment.
© 2017 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment