HELL—Matthew 25:31-46
Last week, we talked about heaven, and this week, we talk about hell.
Why talk about hell? It is not something we talk about with strangers, or even casual acquaintances. Some people—even people we know well—might consider it taboo, worse than talking about politics or religion or sex.
Yet if there is life after death, we need to talk about hell. What is hell? Will some people go to hell? How should the reality of hell affect us?
Jesus talked about hell, and one day he told a parable that answered some of our questions. Read Matthew 25:31-46.
WHAT IS HELL?
***Maybe you have heard the urban legend that Russian scientists discovered hell. They bored 14.5 kilometers into the earth, where the temperature was 1100 degrees Celsius. (That much is true.) The legendary part was that a gigantic winged demon came out of the hole, and a microphone recorded the screams of the damned, which could then be heard on the internet. The legend was debunked by an article in CT in 1990, which traced its origins to a fringe paranormal newsletter in Finland.**
Hell is not deep down in the earth. It is not a place in the universe at all, since the universe will not last forever. In fact, we don’t know much about the “place” called hell.
What do we know? Jesus’ parable implies several things about hell:
-Hell is punishment.
As Jesus put it, “They will go into eternal punishment.”
In the parable, hell is described as “eternal fire,” which was a common conception of hell in that time. The word for hell was “gehenna,” which literally referred to the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, just outside Jerusalem. That valley had an evil history, as a place where some Israelites sacrificed their children to heathen gods! (See Jeremiah 19:4-6.) Later, garbage was burned in the same valley, giving the image of a hot place, a place of fire and smoke. Jesus said that in gehenna, the fire never goes out, although of course he might have been speaking metaphorically.
Jesus also referred to hell as “the outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12). Of course, darkness implies no fire for light or heat. Jesus gave other descriptions, of worms that don’t die, or weeping and gnashing of teeth. Most likely he was using metaphors to portray the horrors of hell.
Yet the suffering of hell is not limited to physical pain.
-Hell is separation from God.
In the parable, the master says, “Depart from me, you who are cursed.
Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10, “God will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.”
In heaven, God is in the midst of his people. His glory shines, his blessings flow, and his righteousness is established. Life is good, because God is good.
In hell, God is absent. His glory is absent, his blessings are cut off, and life is un-right.
Some people who are headed for hell don’t see the absence of God as a problem. They would rather not have to think about God and his righteousness. But what happens to humanity, when God abandons them? In Romans 1, Paul observed that people who “neither glorified God nor gave thanks to him…[found that] their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…[so that] they worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator.” Paul went on say that “God gave them over to a depraved mind…filled with envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice.”
Of course, Christians are not immune to the sins common to humanity, but God does not give up on them. He has redeemed them, and they will be perfected and made righteous as they enter their eternal home.
But there is no redemption in hell. There are no signs of God’s glory and goodness, no moral authority, no ultimate justice. There is no hope of perfection, and no power to change. As eternity wears on, what will happen to people without hope and without God? Will they be filled with envy, strife, deceit and malice? Who wants to live with that?
-Hell is ruled by evil.
If God is not in hell, who will be in charge? Who will have the power, and how will it be used?
***There are places in the world that I would rather not live. I would not want to live in a place where drug lords control the countryside. I would not want to live in a prison where the guards allow the worst of the worst prisoners to run the place. I would not want to live in an oppressive society, where the rich and powerful take every good thing, and abuse the powerless. There are places like that in the world, and people who are oppressed by evil powers experience a hellish existence.**
Who will be in charge in hell? Evil people? Perhaps, but the powers of hell are even worse than the worst people we can imagine. Jesus described hell as “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The devil is there, along with his angels. Is there any doubt that the king of hell will be the devil, and the power structures of hell will be evil to the core? Without God, evil will reign.
If hell is so evil, we have a second question:
WHY WOULD GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL? (In the parable, the king does that.)
Hell was not created for people. In verse 41, the king describes hell as “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” People don’t belong there, but the king sends people out of his presence into the place of eternal punishment.
Why would a loving and gracious God send people to hell?
God does not want to want to send people to hell. In fact, God did something unimaginable to keep people out of hell, and get them into heaven. John 3:16-17 says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” What greater thing could God do to save people from condemnation, and get them into heaven with him?
2 Peter 3:9 is very direct: “The Lord [does] not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
And there is the problem: Not everyone repents, or turns from a path that leads to destruction. Not everyone chooses to turn to God to be saved. Not everyone turns from sin, to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord.
What do you propose that God should do with people who reject salvation?
Should God annihilate those who don’t make it through the pearly gates, instead of sending them to the lake of fire? In that case, it would be sort of like a video game, where every time a character fails to succeed, it gets blasted into oblivion. The game seems so real, but the action is only an illusion, with no enduring reality.
Or maybe after people die, God could force them to be transformed into heaven-ready creatures, obedient and righteous. We believe he will transform those who long for that, of course. The apostle Paul said, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” But those who have not longed for his appearing—should he force the crown of righteousness on them? Should he force them to live a righteous life, when they don’t want to be right with God in this life? How would that be that right?
Well, maybe people would change their minds after they died, when they clearly saw their choice between heaven and hell. Couldn’t God give people a second chance?
***C.S. Lewis wrote an insightful story about what a second chance might look like. In “The Great Divorce,” hell is not a place of fire, but joyless urban sprawl, where people get whatever they want. If they want a house, it appears immediately. The result is lots of empty houses, with people isolated and alone.
In the book, a man takes a bus trip to a place of second chances. Heaven is on the horizon, but to get there, people must embrace righteousness. Not all find righteousness to their liking! Lewis describes a bitter cynic who predicts that heaven is a trick, a bully who is offended to be among by people he thinks are beneath him, and a nagging wife who is angry that she would not be allowed to dominate her husband in heaven. However, one man who is corrupted by lust, symbolized by an ugly lizard who rides on his ghost, permits an angel to kill the lizard, and he continues his journey toward paradise.
The point seems to be that a second chance would not be much different than the choices people make when they are alive.**
People who think everything should enjoy the benefits of heaven are not understanding what eternal life with God really is. In heaven, God rules, and Jesus is Lord. In heaven, people say, “Your will be done,” not “My will be done.” In heaven, everyone puts the needs of others before their own, as Paul suggests Christians should do (Philippians 2:3-4). In heaven, sinful pleasures are joyfully rejected, overwhelmed by the joy of pleasing the Father. If that doesn’t sound good to people on earth, they might not enjoy heaven very much!
On the other hand, for people like us, the choice between heaven and hell should be as clear at this moment as it would be if a second chance were possible after death. What would we understand then, that we cannot understand now? Heaven is where God rules in righteousness. People in heaven love and obey God, and love others as God loves them. Hell is where unrighteousness is rampant. People do not love God or others, but only themselves. If a second chance to choose righteous life with God would be necessary, there it is—right here, right now!
Annihilation, forced change, or a second chance after death—all would make life on earth meaningless. If the choices we make in this life will all be ignored or overruled later, then life is insignificant and purposeless.
I think that is the point of Jesus’ parable is that life matters. Some people misunderstand: The point of the story is not that good people get to heaven because they do good things for others. The point is that those who love Christ see others through the eyes of Christ, and act accordingly. They choose the righteous life of heaven, in relation to Jesus Christ, while the others choose a self-centered life of hell on earth. Life on earth sets the direction for eternity.
If choices now determine the eternal destiny of people, we have to ask a serious question:
HOW SHOULD THE REALITY OF HELL AFFECT US?
Of course, we will want to determine our destiny, without delay.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 “We urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain…I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
In God’s grace, he has opened the gates to heaven. All we need to do is accept Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. In him, our sins are forgiven, we set out on a path of love and righteousness, and we begin the transformation that will be completed, by God’s grace, in the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior. Those who long for heaven will not delay.
God warns us not to put off or neglect our role in the kingdom. As Hebrews 2:3 says, “How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?”
When we are saved, we want others to be saved as well.
In 2 Corinthians 5:11-20, Paul says, “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others…[God] has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
***One day, I went with our youth pastor, Terry, to pick up pizza from Domino’s, which he would take to the school to have lunch with students. When we walked in the door, the manager pointed at Terry, and said to me, “This is the guy who told me I was going to hell.” I was speechless, of course.
Later, Terry told me the story. He picked up pizza every Thursday morning, and the manager was always working alone. He began to ask the man how things were going, and after a while, he got an honest answer. Things were not going so well; the man had family problems, which were dragging him down. After listening for several weeks, Terry asked him whether he had a living relationship with Christ. The man replied that he had too many things going on to have time for God. That was when Terry said, “I respect that. Everyone can choose to go to hell if he wants.”
The strange thing was, the manager was smiling when he told me that Terry had told him he was going to hell. A few weeks later, he invited Terry to play golf with him. He knew Terry cared—about his family, his emotional health, and his eternal destiny.
I would never take that approach, because I could not pull it off. But do we care enough to take risks to save people from eternal ruin?**
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 “We urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain…I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
