You remember the story (Gen 18:1-33). God and a couple of His angels visited Abraham on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah. God decided to tell Abraham what He had planned ... to destroy the two cities. Now, Abraham had a nephew there, so he decided to do a little dickering with God. "Suppose you find 50 righteous there. Will you still destroy it?" And here was Abraham's real question: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" (Gen 18:25). We see it as a rhetorical question since we all know the answer is, "Duh! Of course He will!" I'm not so sure anymore. There are some who tell me that God cannot justly judge people for sin. All that "eternal torment" stuff (even from Jesus's lips) does not fit the crime. Sin, they tell me, is just not that big.
This question of the justice of God has actually been a big issue ... for many. How can a just God send people to hell for sins? So they devise answers. "He doesn't. Everyone is saved." "He doesn't. There is no hell. Just annihilation." "He doesn't. He's a forgiving God." These and more are much easier to stomach than the concept of eternal torment for sin. But, are we to only believe that which we find palatable? And that's where this question begins, isn't it? In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die" (Gen 2:16-17). Wait ... die? For eating a piece of fruit?? Our human conception of justice should be boggled by that. "Oh, no," my lefty acquaintances will say, "that's just a myth." So what about the story above? According to Scripture (Old and New Testaments), God rained fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. For what? "Homosexuality," some might say, but the left side urges us to be cautious. "No, no, it was inhospitality." Really?? It is justice for God to annihilate two cities because they didn't welcome strangers right??? Some tell us that we've just misunderstood the whole "hell" thing and it's not at all like that, but I say that it's just like that because it has been so from the beginning. Death for violating a command not to eat a piece of fruit. Annihilation for being inhospitable (and more (Jude 1:7)). Struck dead for steadying the ark (2 Sam 6:6-7). Burned alive for offering "strange fire" (Lev 10:1-2). (I don't even know what that is). A man and wife died in place because they weren't honest about how much money they sold a piece of land for (Acts 5:1-11). Over and over God demonstrates that justice looks different to Him than it does to us. Or, rather, His standards are different than ours. An infraction to us is punishable by death to Him. Missing the mark and falling short of His glory (Rom 3:23) deserves eternal torment.
If we start from human standards, we have this (massive) problem of figuring out in what sense God is just. Well, of course, at the outset we need to eliminate eternal damnation. We'll have to dance around all those temporal judgments as well. Because God cannot judge based on a standard different than our own. Or ... We really have a limited grasp on just what God sees as right and how far off we are on that valuation. Either the Judge of all the earth will not deal justly and we're in real trouble, or He will ... and it's worse than we thought. He judges justly, people go to hell, and He's right in doing so. It all boils down to where you're willing to bend. Are you right and God doesn't judge sin, or is God right and He does? Choose carefully.
3 comments:
It comes down to our understanding of the holiness of God. We've lost sight of that, and focus on "God is love", thinking that love is the same we're used to, not realizing we've redefined love into our own image, this redefining God into our image. When we lose sight of the holiness of God and the depravity of Man, Hell becomes impossible and salvation a given, acquired by death.
This is an impactful reminder that our sin is much more serious to God than it is to us. Only defective thinking would cause such huge sinners as ourselves to criticize God for not overlooking our rebellion towards Him. However, when I consider God’s perfect standards, based on His flawless nature, then His exacting judgment of us is perfectly righteous and just. (Grasping this reality also refutes any “perfectionist” tendencies in me or “works salvation” efforts on my part, since they are based on a flawed human standard.) Thankfully, the Perfect One offers to us His grace and imputed righteousness. Then, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) As you say in conclusion, how badly we need to recognize our true condition before a just and holy God and “choose carefully”--either learn it now and run to God for rescue or later, when it will be too late.
Frankly, the reality of our complete sinfulness before a just and holy God--and our subsequent worthiness of eternal punishment due to it--is such a rudimentary truth and the absolute basis of receiving the Good News, that I would never expect this concept to be debated or refuted (at least for long) by anyone claiming to be a born-again Christian. It’s ludicrous to me that “Christians” could or would dispute this essential teaching from God’s own Word to us; whenever you write about (supposed) believers who do so, I simply shake my head in disbelief.
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