The concept of a Loving God directly causing punishment upon someone doesn’t sit well with many. They don’t want to contemplate that Eternal punishment awaits those who do not follow Christ. The majority of Americans (67%) believe heaven is real, that number drops slightly (61%) when it comes to a belief in hell.
We read about “eternal hell” and many imagine a vengeful, hateful being just waiting to cause remedial pain upon some undeserving individual; or perhaps an unjust judge penalizing a poor innocent individual. But note that the words from which the word punishment derive don’t necessarily carry the concept of remedial correction, or sentence such as a prison term:
Punishment: the assessing or inflicting of pain, suffering, loss, confinement, etc. on a person for a crime or offense. From Punish: inflict a penalty on; from Latin punire "punish, correct, chastise; take vengeance for; inflict a penalty on, cause pain for some offense," from earlier poenire, from poena "penalty”.
Penalty: from penal from ancient PIE *kwoina, from root *kwei- "to pay, atone, compensate".
The word punishment is derived from words for atonement. From atone it literally means “be in harmony, agree, be in accordance," literally from a word meaning "in accord," literally "at one," a contraction of at and one.
But…weren’t we going to talk about Hell? Isn’t it just a place of eternal punishment for doing wrong? In ANY contested event where there is a “third party” refereeing the outcome, such a a sporting event, or a debate, or a court trial, are their not penalties for rules infractions? “Off Sides! Penalty 5 yards!” “Unsportsmanlike conduct! Player Number 666 is ejected from the game!” Does the referee cause the penalty, or does the referee merely observe the infraction and then the pre-authorized rules are enforced an appropriate penalty.
As we discussed last week, God allows us to make our OWN choices, but God has established the cosmic rules by which ALL must adhere or the penalty for violation will be invoked. And, as we looked at last week, God ALLOWS us the right to violate his cosmic law if we so choose, even if it means living apart and separated from God for eternity.
Such eternal condemnation and separation from God are the very reasons Christ died for us. Here is an interesting note: the word hell is derived from ancient word meaning “to cover, conceal, save”. It carried the concept of burial…a covering over of the body that had died.
Over the last 2000 years or so, we have come to perceive hell as some sort of eternal, cosmic penalty box that God arbitrarily puts people that he has “ejected from the game”. Miriam Webster online dictionary defines hell as “a nether world (a “subworld”) where the dead continue to exist,” and as “a place or state of turmoil (extreme confusion, agitation or commotion) or destruction (reduced to nothingness)”, Those who do not “chose God” will find themselves in a state of extreme confusion, agitation, commotion or destruction”. Kind of sounds like the world today doesn’t it.
Jesus teaches that such a hell is a reality that no one need fear if faith is placed in Christ.
We read at 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 where the Thessalonian believers had questions concerning the second coming of Jesus. These questions apparently persisted to the point that some believers were concerned that the day of the Lord had already happened. Paul wrote this second letter in large part to correct this false idea.
Here he talks about justice, God’s repayment for those who were afflicting believers, God’s vengeance (“to clear from censure or doubt, by means of demonstration”) to them.
2 Thessalonians 1:3-7a
3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, since your faith is flourishing and the love each one of you has for one another is increasing.
4 Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God's churches—about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions that you are enduring.
5 It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering,
6 since it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you
7a and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us.
The point in this passage is that God watches over His faithful followers. Paul was thankful because the Thessalonian believers’ lives demonstrated the genuineness of their faith. The term for flourishing is derived from a root word that refers to the growth of plants. Paul added a prefix to this root word for growth to indicate extensive, even surprising growth. The Thessalonian believers’ faith in Jesus was leading them to do the good works to which God had called them. The Thessalonian believers were proving the genuineness of their faith by their consistent lifestyles that were producing good deeds, and cited some for them. He told the Thessalonians that he was so certain of the genuineness of their faith that he was using their example to encourage other churches to grow in their love and faith.
He boasted about their “perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions that you are enduring.”Perseverance includes the sense of enduring, but it also includes the idea of growing spiritually by refusing to give up. In Romans 5 Paul challenged believers to rejoice in their suffering because persevering through trials develops character and hope. Paul used faith to call attention to their constant faithfulness to Jesus.
He used two strong words to describe the trials the Thessalonian believers were facing: persecutions is to pursue or to chase after and afflictions is literally the exerting of extreme pressure. As Paul had initially done, Christian believers were being actively pursued and having extreme pressure applied to them. Yet they endured. The term enduring means to hold up against something without giving in. Paul’s referring to all the attacks that the believers were enduring indicates their persecutions were ongoing.
LIFE is full of things, and people, who will pursue or chase after us. Life is constantly exerting stressful pressure upon us in some form. Paul calls for us to endure…to hold up without giving in. As long as we live we are to resist the pressures and the pursuers. This statement literally means: just as Jesus did, we must endure to the point of death, trusting that God will care and keeps us in the manner that HE needs.
Verse 5 relates that It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that they will be counted worthy. Though we often associate the word judgment with condemnation, that was not Paul’s meaning here. His point was rather the evaluation of both the believers (in this verse) and those who were persecuting them. God’s judgment is always righteous, that is, just and fair by His own perfect and holy standards. Paul was encouraging these disciples to remain faithful because they knew that their “perseverance and faith” were proof of the genuineness of their salvation. Paul may have also been saying that the attacks they were suffering were evidence of their link to Jesus. Stated (very generally) another way “God KNOWS the cosmic rules that he laid down. God KNOWS the hearts, the motives, the thoughts of both the persecutors AND the persecuted. The appropriate penalty or atonement, will be required by cosmic law. God ensures that his cosmic law is respected.
Some religions teach that suffering increases the possibility of reward in this life and the next. That is not what Paul was teaching. Salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus and “not from works”. These works of “perseverance and faith” were evidence of genuine, saving faith in Christ already gained through grace, not the means of obtaining salvation.
Verse 6 states “it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you“ The word translated just is the same word translated “righteous” in verse 5. While Jesus’s faithful disciples will be rewarded, those who deny Him and persecute His followers will themselves suffer affliction. Paul described this suffering in more detail in verses 8-9.
Another part of that justice is that God will “give relief to you who are afflicted”. Paul was clearly referring to the time of Jesus’s return. The Greek word for relief is also translated as “rest”. Paul was not saying that this relief would come soon but rather exhorted the Thessalonian believers to continue to endure their “persecutions and afflictions” since they could be confident of their reward.
Next we’ll see the King of Kings being revealed in the heavens, along with his powerful messengers taking action that clears away any doubt that he is the sovereign of the Cosmos. Let’s see what happens then:
2 Thessalonians 1:7b-10
7b This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels,
8 when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength
10 on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed.
All of which means God has “staked a claim” to our lives because we have given our “selves” to him. God has ordained that “there is a penalty to be paid for claim jumping.” Those who, because they have voluntarily given themSELVES as a sacrifice to God, are, so to speak “the property of God” and as such anyone attempting to “steal from God” will have a penalty to pay, namely those who do not adhere to God will face eternal destruction.
This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus, Paul tells us. While the Greek word translated revelation can refer to new knowledge God chooses to reveal, it can also refer to Christ’s return. So, ever since Christ’s ascension into heaven we have been living in the revelation – Jesus HAS been revealed as the Christ AND new knowledge was revealed about the Messiah. When Jesus returns to earth to “validate his claim, (so to speak), he will again give new knowledge. Either way, if you stop and think about it, we are living the Revelation of Jesus currently. That’s an interesting concept. The promise of Jesus’s return is an essential basis for our “blessed hope”.
Jesus will return as “the King of kings and Lord of lords” Notice the capitalization in the King of kings statement. There IS only one King over all kings and Lord over all lords, and that is God. We could illustrate it by saying “there IS only one BOSS, God, and no one on THIS (or any other) planet beside God is it!”
Paul warned the Christians in Rome to avoid avenging themselves. He stressed that this kind of just punishment belongs to God alone. He encouraged them by reminding them of how God would treat them when He sent Jesus to carry out His righteous judgment. This judgment is the context of the vengeance that “the Lord Jesus”. will bring when He returns to validate his claim as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Paul points to fire in the fulfillment of God’s validating his claim. We often think of fire primarily in its “pain causing” capacity, but, as we have studied previously, fire is a transformative agent. With enough heat ore may be smelted into metal. Impurities may be burnt off leaving a more pure substance. Isaiah described the wrath of God against those where were against God as 1) fire, 2) flames of fire, and 3) his firery sword. Jesus describes hell as the place of “unquenchable fire” and John called it the “Lake of fire”
Also in verse 8 Paul describes the two groups upon which this vengeance would play out: Those who don’t know God and those who don’t obey the gospel of Jesus. So those who ignore God and those who WON’T follow the teachings of the Gospel of Christ can EXPECT the referee of the universe to invoke just punishment by enforcing the rules that are universally apparent. Paul stressed the irredeemable nature of this punishment as eternal destruction. The word eternal indicates that those who refuse the gospel will not cease to exist after their physical death but will face an unending punishment, a penalty to atone for their choice. Just as there will be no end to the gift of “eternal life” (John 3:16), there will be no end of this state of condemnation. The final judgment is an act of God and His sentence of eternal destruction is the eternal state of the unbeliever.
They will eternally be separated from God’s presence (literally, “from the Lord’s face”). They will never know his love, kindness, provision, joy and more. EVER. Can you imagine living ONE lifetime with NONE of the positive pleasures of God’s presence? Can you imagine an eternity of it? In contrast, those who are true believers “will always be with the Lord”.
Verse 10 tells us that “on that day when he comes to be glorified”. Throughout the Bible the word glory is used in a literal sense to refer to brightness or radiance. Metal smelters don’t use thermometers to judge the temperature of their fire, they use the color, the brightness, the glory to determine when the fire is hot enough to bring the metal out of the stone. Perhaps the description of lake of fire implies that those cast into it have hearts SO hardened that all of the hottest fire in the cosmos can’t make them relinquish their obstinate position against God.
Glory is also used to describe the outward manifestation of Jesus during His transfiguration. Though God the Father and Jesus the Son have this essence of glory because of their deity, they also receive glory from their creation.Paul used two descriptions to refer to the same group of people. The term saints (hagios) literally means “holy ones.” They are holy in two ways: (1) Because of their new relationship with God through their faith they are now “a holy nation”. (2) Because of their new power in Christ, they are called and enabled to “be holy” in their lifestyles.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
11 In view of this, we always pray for you that our God will make you worthy of his calling, and by his power fulfill your every desire to do good and your work produced by faith,
12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 11 notes that Paul prays “That our God will make you worthy of his calling”. We should probably understand the phrase his calling in two senses. First God calls us to salvation by his grace. However, He also calls us to a new kind of life that fulfills His purpose for us. Paul was urging the believers to honor God’s calling them to salvation AND God’s calling them to holy living. He prayed that God would make the Thessalonian believers worthy of his calling, his desire was that God would enable them to have righteous desires and holy lifestyles. Paul was asking God to supply all that these believers needed to continue to be faithful. God would enable them to live in a manner consistent with their holy calling and to follow Jesus regardless of the cost.
One of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit is “goodness”, the same word Paul used here as good. This word refers to a morally upright lifestyle. Paul knew that before a believer can develop a good lifestyle the person must develop an inward desire to seek God’s standard. However, because of our sinful nature, we need God’s power to enable us to consistently choose to do good. Paul wrote the Philippians that God was working in them to give them the power to choose (“to will”) what is good. Here Paul was praying that God would fulfill or bring to completion the desire of the Thessalonians to do His will.
What “will” does this refer to? Will refers to “mind, determination, purpose; desire, wish, request; joy, delight," and “to determine by act of choice." So Paul was praying for the Thessalonians, and us, to know God’s mind, determinations, purpose, desire, wish, request; joy, delight and acts of choice. That we would choose as God would choose because we are “so full of God” that we can know his mind within our limited capacities. Developing the habit of wanting to do God’s will is a good start, but that is not enough. Paul also prayed that God would give these believers the power to carry out good works (“to work according to his good purpose”).
So “eternal accord, agreement, harmony and at oneness” awaits those who do not follow Christ when at God’s final verdict EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS that Jesus Christ IS GOD.
Then they will be eternally separated from oneness with God as they get to enjoy a hot time in the old town … forever.
But why would a good God send people to an everlasting hell?
Those in hell have rejected a relationshipwith the self-giving God. Hell is not not merely for those simply committing individual sins, Hell is the logical outcome of a mindset to live life apart from God. The punishment fits the crime. You want no God, you get no God. What is unjust about giving someone what they want?
“But wouldn’t persons in hell really want to be with God if they knew what hell is like?”
To those whohave resisted God on earth and who continue in their hard-heartedness thereafter, God’s holy presence would truly be “hell”, forever reminding them of just how they missed the mark. As we said last week, Hell is for those who have “already made their CHOICE to reject God”. It is NOT just a “penalty box” to discourage or encourage repentance. We have no hint from Scripture of repentance in hell.
“But how can people be sent to hell without knowing its full implications?”
Though the full consequences of our embracing or rejecting God aren’t fully apparent to us now, grace to choose responsibly is available to all. Whatprevents the salvation of everyone? Individuals’ choosing freely to reject God’s grace. We can always resist the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t send people to hell; they freely reject Him, thus choosing their own eternal abode condemning themselves.
“Why did God create people He knew would reject and be separated from Him forever?”
I have heard it said that “the inability to interfere with free will” is the first rule of the universe. Despite God’s desire that all be saved, many still resist. Because God has so fully given of Himself to make salvation freely available through His Son, we can confidently entrust any lingering questions about hell to His excellent character.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank your for your comments!
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.