Hell

Our generation typically takes issue with HELL. We take issue with a God who can somehow embody LOVE and yet simultaneously damn people to HELL for all eternity. We take it upon ourselves to determine that God’s WRATH, vengeance, and hatred simply cannot be compatible with His LOVE, mercy, and goodness. So we drop one or the other. We determine what God can or cannot be like.

That is not what I am doing with this post. Sin is real. HELL is real. Eternity in a lake of fire will be just as real as the Cross was. That pain and that WRATH are very real.

I praise God for His WRATH and for His justice. 

It is not my intention for this post to craft a “feel good” or “self-centered” message (although, God’s LOVE should give us bliss, and His AFFECTIONS are centered on those who are centered in Christ). My intention with this post is to share the Truth:  that God LOVES us. He loved us before we sinned, and our sin failed to change His LOVE for the creation He promised to LOVE.

All of God’s interactions with creation since our Fall have been motivated by His LOVE for us, and they have been aimed at our redemption. His WRATH, which is inseparable from the rest of His character, is part of the equation of God’s LOVE. Like everything else, God’s WRATH flows from His LOVE.

We have to get over HELL. It is a needless stumbling block for so many. Yes- HELL is eternal pain, punishment, agony, etc. Yes- in our sin, we deserve HELL and WRATH. Yes- on the surface, HELL seems unfair and is hard to swallow. 

But what if I told you that HELL– just like the Cross- exists as a result of God’s LOVE for His creation? What if the WRATH of God that is pointed at sin and all it consumes is simply a necessary mirror image of the LOVE of God that is pointed at Christ’s blood and all it consumes? What if HELL is simply another way God LOVES His children and all the things that give Him glory?

That seems so blaringly counterintuitive, but just think about it. What kind of Father allows His children to be in the presence of evil? What kind of Father tolerates the stain of negative influences on His children? What kind of good Father sees His children Fall and does absolutely nothing about it? What kind of good Father settles for distance from the ones He LOVES?

God’s WRATH is God’s answer to those questions. The Cross and HELL– our two big tangible pictures of God’s WRATH– are God’s answers to the Fall of the creation that he LOVES. He pours out His WRATH against sin, for the good of all that He LOVES. His WRATH falls on sin and things consumed by sin, for the good of all that is covered by Christ’s blood through faith in redemption. 

HELL (God’s method of eternal WRATH) needs to be re-evaluated by many. What is HELL, if it is not God’s way of eternally separating His children from the influence of evil? 

From birth, we are born into Adam’s sin and are objects of God’s WRATH. From new birth in Christ, we are born into Christ’s righteousness and are objects of God’s AFFECTIONS. HELL is real, but it flows from God’s LOVE for His creation. HELLfire and brimstone are real, but they flow only alongside living water. They can only be properly understood in light of God’s LOVE.