You have probably heard it in movies or even in conversations: someone saying, “Go to hell.” Now, it may as well be considered, in our day, a figure of speech, but do we really know what hell is? As believers, having a clear understanding of what hell is should inspire us to go out and evangelize rather than use it as a figure of speech. Our sole aim should be rescuing those about to fall into eternal damnation. In the following paragraphs, I want to challenge us to view hell, not just as a place where people go to continue their ratchet living away from the world, but as a reason for us to engage in the Great Commission call, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19).
The Divine Origin
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1) and put man there to tend them. Man was perfect until he succumbed to the serpent’s temptation, which led to their fall (Genesis 3) and eventual excommunication. The temptation came from Satan, who had been kicked out of heaven due to rebellion against God, and hell was prepared as his eternal place of punishment for his unpardonable sin. Jesus said that hell is a place of eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Foundationally, hell is primarily for the devil. However, through acts of deception and temptation, the devil wants to get in as many of God’s image bearers as he can to join him. The essence of sin is to get man to live eternally in a place where he was never intended to live.
Those who die without Christ will face the punishment of everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). To the believer, therefore, hell shouldn’t be a joke but one that should stir us up to evangelize. We ought to realize with great urgency that if we do not expose people to the saving grace of Christ (John 3:16-17) before their first death (Ephesians 2:1-3), they will encounter a second death in the eternal lake of fire experience (Revelation 20:14) as the reward of a life of sin (Romans 6:23). Those who follow the devil’s ways will end up where he will be, in hell, and suffer eternally. This realization for the believer should cause us to think as the prophet thinks in Ezekiel 33:11: “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Do you know one who still lives in their sin? Pursue to share the gospel with them.
The Final Destination
The other reality of hell is that it is a place of eternal separation from God and irreversible judgment. Yes. Eternal, which means never-ending. Anyone who is living is one headed for hell should know that it has neither exit nor escape plan. If you are in, then you are in eternally. Jesus called it a place of everlasting punishment, contrasting it with eternal life for those who trust in him (Matthew 25:46). Paul says, ” but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Eternity’s timeline is limitless. How about encouraging as many as we can to spend it where there’s life?
Luke describes the great fixed and irrevocable chasm (Luke 16:26). Whoever chooses to walk away from the redeeming gospel selects a path that they will never turn away from once the curtains close. One decision here plunges them into an eternity they will never undo, and that is why we, on this side of eternity, must see the urgency of sharing the gospel with as many as are not born again. Perhaps, through our efforts, God will grant them forgiveness. Jesus says that in hell, there’s unquenchable fire and the worm that does not die, meaning it is a place of ceaseless agony (Mark 9:43, 48). Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.
It is the inevitability of judgment that the believer must remember to fire up their hearts for missions. Verse 7 of Jude cites Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of what suffering the vengeance of eternal fire looks like. It is a total and irreversible destruction that we should never wish for anyone. As far as it depends on us, may we go out in the mission field and, by the grace of God, snatch some from the fire (Jude 1:23).
The Conscious Torment
The other reality is the endless suffering characteristic of hell. Contrary to what most people think, in hell, the souls of men will be conscious and able to feel every bit of pain. Consider these words by Charles Spurgeon: “You and I can never imagine all the depths of hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of darkness, we cannot tell the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls. Happily, the wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests were but a maiden’s whisper, compared with one wail of a damned spirit. It is not possible for us to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish that knows no alleviation. These eyes would become sightless balls of darkness if they were permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment. Hell is horrible, for we may say of it, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive the horrors which God has prepared for them that hate him.”
The rich man was in real-time torment, begging for water (Luke 16:23-24). He experienced conscious suffering in that place to which he probably paid little attention while on earth. It was not a figment of his imagination but a reality he would live through all eternity. If Jesus was not silent about the realities of this place, then it must weigh heavily on our minds as a place we wouldn’t wish to be anyone’s destiny.
However, the torment is not only conscious but also intense, and, as we see in Scripture, full of regret. Jesus says the person is to be cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12). Other passages cite the smoke of their torment as ascending forever, they have no rest, and ultimate destruction and punishment of body and soul (Revelation 14:11, Matthew 10:28).
Believer, let the sheer reality of why God prepared hell and the torments there in stir us to zealous evangelism. Many are rushing there headlong, while we sit quietly with the message of the gospel’s hope. May we live out what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:11, “We know what it is to fear the Lord; we try to persuade others.”
Reference
The Sympathy Of Two Worlds, Volume 4, Sermon #203 – Luke 15:10