The hell you say

Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"
He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, `Sir, open the door for us.'
"But he will answer, `I don't know you or where you come from.'
"Then you will say, `We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'
"But he will reply, `I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'
"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last" (Luke 13:22-30).

“What the hell is going on here?” “Who the hell do you think you are?” “Hell if I know.”

This is the way many people talk nowadays. 'Hell' has become a common, everyday word. People use 'hell' to emphasize how angry they are. It has become a word that describes their emotional state.

But it wasn’t always so. Were you surprised by my casual use of 'hell' when I started this devotion? Did I make you feel uncomfortable? If so, good for you! It wasn’t so many years ago that 'hell' was considered a bad word; you didn’t use it in polite company and children got into trouble for saying it. Back then, saying 'hell' was considered the same thing as saying 'damn you' or 'damn it to hell.' It was a curse, a wish that a person, thing, or situation would be condemned by God to hell because of the suffering it was causing. Since Scripture forbids cursing, 'hell' was seen as sinful language.

But what’s the big deal? Why should anyone get stirred up over 'hell'? It isn’t a real place, is it? Or even if it is, nobody really goes there, do they? Our God is a God of love; surely, no God of love would send anybody to hell. The Bible just talks about hell to scare us into leading a good life, right?

Wrong. Hell is real. There are people in hell right now, and more people are going there every day. And they aren’t getting there on their own, either--our God is sending them there. That is why hell is a big deal, that is why Christians ought to squirm when hell is talked about. We know that it is a real place. We know that being sent there is no laughing matter. The consequence of damnation in hell is deadly serious business, not something to ever be treated lightly.

What do we know about hell? First of all, we know that it is a place of punishment set up by God for the fallen angels we call devils and demons. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus warns us of Judgment Day: “Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” We know that there are human beings imprisoned in hell as well. Saint Peter speaks of Jesus visiting hell in triumph after He was crucified: “He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago…” (1 Peter 3:18-20). We know that it is a place of terrible suffering: “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28). It is a place of unending pain, where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). It is a place separated from God’s presence and the light of His divine love: “Then the king told the attendants, `Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness…” (Matthew 22:13).

Who is sent to hell? Jesus says “anyone who says, `You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:22). He also tells us “I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:28-30). According to Jesus, anyone who has a casual sinful thought or lets a careless word slip from his lips is worthy of imprisonment in hell!

There are many people today who cannot accept that hell is a very real threat. I have heard more than one person say “I can’t believe in a God that would send anyone to hell.” What an arrogant attitude! As if we are in the position of deciding which god to believe in? Scripture teaches us that there is only one God, and He is a just and holy God. Our God cannot stand sin; sin is rebellion against everything that God values. God values honesty; sin suggests that we say whatever we must to stay out of trouble. God expects us to give; sin encourages us to fill our homes with expensive, pretty things. God desires that we love others; sin wants us to look out for Number One. God demands perfection from us; sin allows us an “A” for effort. God expects us to be holy like Him; sin taints every part of our personality and every aspect of our lives.

Thankfully, it is sin God hates, not the sinner. God hates the evil things we think, say and do, but He doesn’t hate us. God loves us. He has always loved us. God loved each and every one of us before we were even born. And that created a problem for God. God is perfect and will not tolerate the slightest imperfection in the things that are His. When Satan led a group of angels in rebellion against God, God banished them all to hell because of their sin. But mankind is the crown of God’s creation; of all the things He’s made, God loves mankind the most. That is why Satan tempted Adam and Eve to sin—Satan knew that there was no worse way that he could hurt God than to make Him send humanity to hell because of their sins. After all, Satan thought, God is perfect; how could He stop being perfect and turn a blind eye to mankind’s sin? A perfect God must be perfectly just.

But our wise and loving God found a way to remain perfectly just, punishing all sins, while also offering His beloved children escape from the doom of hell. God sent His perfect Son to suffer the torments of hell on our behalf. All the punishment we have so rightly deserved was heaped on Jesus as He hung on that cruel Roman cross nearly 2,000 years ago. During those long hours of Good Friday, Jesus suffered every moment of our eternal imprisonment in hell. When Jesus finally said “It is finished” and died, He was announcing to us that the power of hell to claim sinful man had been broken. Only Jesus could bear an eternity of suffering on behalf of every man, woman, and child who has ever lived or ever will live. Jesus alone could bear our punishment because He was and is our true God, living in human flesh and bone. Only God, with infinite power, infinite endurance and infinite love, could be greater than all the wickedness this world has ever known. Only Jesus Christ, our God, is the means to be rid of our rightful punishment so that heaven replaces hell as our eternal home.

Jesus won release from hell and reconciliation with His Father for everyone, but not everyone will receive this gift of release. When God the Father looks at mankind, our sin is still present; the proof is on the news every day. Jesus paid for our sins, but He did not remove our sinful nature. Every day, people lie, cheat, steal, rape and murder. Christians continue to commit sins, as do their unbelieving neighbors. But there is a difference. A Christian is a person who humbly admits his sins, desperately desires forgiveness, believes that Jesus has suffered his punishment on his behalf, and trusts that because of this, the Father finds him acceptable for heaven. When our heavenly Father looks on a person with this faith, God does not see a need for punishment—the sentence of death has already been carried out on Jesus’ cross. But when the Father looks at the life of the unbeliever, He finds no recognition of wrongdoing, no hope in the supreme sacrifice Jesus made on this person's behalf. For such a person, hell remains the eternal home that follows death. God wants the unbeliever to be saved; Paul says “God our Savior...wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). But there is only one way for a man to be saved; Jesus says “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). When a man dies in unbelief, hell is a very real place indeed.

In the Scripture passage that started this devotion, a person asks how many would be saved. Jesus turns the question around and asks each and every one of us, ‘Will you be saved?’ The answer is yes, we will be saved, because we have a Christian faith, a faith that moves us to repent of our sinning, a faith that knows that Jesus has paid the price for our sinning, a faith that trusts that, because of Jesus, we really can expect to see God in His heaven when we die. We have this saving faith because God’s Holy Spirit has entered us through baptism and time spent with God’s word. But this is not something that we dare take for granted. Jesus warns us that we must “make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” Jesus Himself is the narrow door; in John 10:9 we read “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” Heaven is not like a stadium, where many doors allow entry; Jesus alone is the way into the Father’s heavenly throne room. Jesus instructs us to ‘make every effort’ to enter the narrow door, because He knows full well how much of a struggle Satan will make it for us. Paul says, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (Romans 7:18-20). Thankfully, we are not left to this struggle by ourselves; in Acts 2:37-38 we read, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” It is this Holy Spirit who not only gives us faith, but also gives us the strength to struggle with our sinful nature, so that when we die, we will die in the Lord.

Jesus also admonishes us to make ‘every effort’ to enter, because there is a time limit; when a man dies, if he dies outside the faith, he will find the door to heaven closed. Only the person who trusts in Christ alone will pass through the narrow door when his last breath leaves his body. We can die at any time; no one knows if he will die unexpectedly in a car crash or of a sudden heart attack. That is why it is important that you listen to God’s word today and tomorrow and the next day. The Holy Spirit who provides our faith and strength in our struggles comes through hearing and studying God’s word. This is why we are grateful that God provides clergy to preach His word and Sunday School teachers to help parents “Train a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6).

Jesus tells us to ‘make every effort’ to enter by the narrow door. So I urge you: see that your children attend Sunday School every week. Go to a Bible class so that you “may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). Attend church on Sunday and hold family devotions the other six days of the week. Don’t take your faith in God for granted and give Satan an opening to lure you back to hell. ‘Make every effort’ to enter through the narrow door and you will not be disappointed, for that narrow door leads to the eternal presence of God and a heavenly celebration that will never end.