Hell No!

Yesterday I preached on the common language different cultures use to describe the wicked’s fate in the afterlife. All had a place for the worse among us to spend an eternity in torment. Why is this? Simply it’s about fairness and justice. People are bent toward these attributes. Fairness is impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination. Justice is the administration of the law or authority in maintaining order. People want to be treated fairly and want others to be treated with justice. Fairness is the application of justice to everyone without prejudice.

I am going to speak on the topic this coming Sunday, but I want to address the idea of fairness. Sin separates us from God. Not the individual sins we commit everyday, but the sin nature that resides in us all. We are by nature sinful people. In a sense it is inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. As a result we are separated from God, and therefore all are subject to the punishment of our sin nature. Fairness states that we all are to be sperated from God, judged for our sin nature, and cast into the lake of fire.

God laid his justice on Jesus, and his sacrifice is sufficient to cover the debt owed by all humanity. The application of Jesus’ sacrifice is through our faith. Fairness isn’t the application of Jesus’ sacrifice on all people no matter what, but that God requires the application through faith to be given to people who believe, regardless of race, economic status, or previous religious affiliation. Unfair would be for God to say that salvation is by faith, and then at the last minute say, “just kidding everyone, no matter what they did in this life, can come into heaven.”

God is fair, and the rules apply to everyone. That’s good news to those who are being saved, but to those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, it is bad news, because they experience, not the fairness of God’s goodness, but the fairness of His wrath. I’m just saying...