Reading: Revelation 20:11-15

As you’re reading this, don’t think of the throne being “great” because of it’s immensity. The throne is great because of its occupancy. That is: the One who is sitting there is great. More specifically. He is holy. You’ll do well to notice that in Scripture God is never called loving, loving, loving. He is never called merciful, merciful, merciful. He is never called gracious, gracious, gracious. He’s never called patient, patient, patient. He is called all those things singularly, but He is described as holy, holy, holy. Like. That is His flagship attribute. And if the sky and the earth in all of their beauty and in all of their finely tuned grandeur—if they who make life possible can’t stand before the holiness of God—how do you think you’re going to fair?

But. For those who haven’t accepted Jesus, whose names aren’t in the book, they get what they always wanted: to be in charge of their destiny. And by making that decision they have opened before them, the books of their deeds. Everything they ever said. Everything they ever did. Every evil they ever thought. Every fantasy. Every lust. Every moment of anger. Every moment of laziness. EVERY. THING.

Here’s an even more terrifying thought. Maybe one of those many books is a record of all the times that a person had an opportunity to give their life to Christ, every time they heard the gospel but refused. One thing’s for sure: there’s no happy endings in any of those books. It’s why you need to let God write your story. Because this is what your authorship gets you: judgment.

On a practical level, this text tells us that people only get the afterlife they wanted most in their actual life. They either want to have God as their Savior and Master, or they want to be their own Savior and Master. There are those who say to Jesus, “Thy will be done.” And there are those to whom Jesus says, “Thy will be done.” In other words, hell is simply one’s freely chosen path going on forever. We wanted to get away from God, and God, in his infinite justice, sends us where we wanted to go. That is: God’s not forcing anyone in to heaven.

Secondly, this tells us that not everyone has the same judgement experience. I believe there will be varying degrees of punishment in Hell because we are told quite clearly here (and in other places) that these people, these unbelievers—the dead, are judged according to their works. So. You’ve maybe heard the phrase, “sin is sin”. Well. Not exactly. Again. There are many Scriptures on this. One being when Jesus is standing before Pilate, and He says to him, “The one who handed me over has the greater sin.”

The other thing I want you feeling the weight of is the fact that hell is not a static experience. It’s not like you’re there and you quit sinning. Here’s what I mean: in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) Jesus tells us of a rich man who goes to hell and who is now in torment and horrible thirst because of the fire. This man urges father Abraham to send a messenger to go and warn his still-living brothers about the reality of hell. Commentators have pointed out that this is not a gesture of compassion, but rather an effort at blame-shifting. He is saying that he did not have a chance, he did not have adequate information to avoid hell. So. Even knowing he is in hell, and knowing God has sent him there, he is deeply in denial, angry at God, unable to admit that it was a just decision, wishing he could be less miserable but in no way willing to repent or seek the presence of God. So. I’ll write this as plainly as I can—the reason hell is eternal is because the rebellion is eternal.

Now. I get it. We all know someone who likely hasn’t accepted Jesus, and we want to know what happens to them. Which. I offer this thought. “In a sense, none of our loved ones will be in Hell—only some whom we once loved. Our love for our companions in Heaven will be directly linked to God, the central object of our love. We will see Him in them. We will not love those in Hell because when we see Jesus as He is, we will love only whoever and whatever pleases and glorifies and reflects Him. What we loved in those who died without Christ was God’s beauty we once saw in them. When God forever withdraws from them, I think they’ll no longer bear His image and no longer reflect His beauty. Although they will be the same people, without God they’ll be stripped of all the qualities we loved. Therefore, paradoxically, in a sense they will not be the people we loved at all.”

A pastor named Skip Heitzig wrote this: “For those who have already lost a loved one who seemingly never accepted Christ: what might help on this—and I have reassured myself about this many times—is to realize that we do not know what happens inside a person before they die. We don’t know whether the Holy Spirit of God has done a work of grace in someone’s heart and life at the last moment. They may have been aware of the hours, minutes, and even just seconds leading up to their death and cried out to God for deliverance. The thief on the cross proves that ‘deathbed conversion’ is certainly possible. And if someone is unable to speak, or too weak to respond, those around them would not know of that conversion. We may be surprised and delighted to one day see them in the presence of Jesus.”

With Gratitude,

pLJ