By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
How’s that for a title? Let’s look into the idea of Hell. So, my first question becomes: Is there a literal Hell? It appears that there is.
It was not created for humans but for Lucifer and his angels and they are eternal beings, thus hell is a place for eternal punishment, and it appears that those who are cursed will be sent there at the final judgement.
Matt 25:41,46 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
That raises my second question: What kind of eternal punishment? Matt 13:42 says: “and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” eternal fire! Weeping and gnashing of teeth! And then add no God as well.
2 Thes 1:9 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” That doesn’t sound like someplace we’d want to vacation in, let alone spend eternity in. Fire, pain and hopelessness!
Now, my third question: Who is going to decide if we go to hell? Jesus says that the Father has assigned him the responsibility to judge which makes sense since he understands us the best, having been human and tempted as we are tempted.
John 5: 27, 30 “And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man…By myself I (Jesus) can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him (the Father) who sent me.”
And that leads to the 4th question: What is judgement? Judgment is not merely for determining who is in and who is out; it is for measuring guilt and assigning punishment that is measured exactly to what every individual sinner deserves.
Just as there are levels of blessing in Heaven, there will be levels of judgement and pain in Hell. Heb 10:29 reads “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”
If there can be a “worse” then there must be a “less than worst”. Our punishment will be based on our deeds and not all men’s deeds are the same in evilness or intensity or in repetitiveness.
Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.”
What this is saying is that our pain and removal from God’s presence will be total for each of us but, like the amount of rewards in Heaven, will be based on how we lived in this life.
Think of it like this: our cup will be filled and running over, what is different is the size of our cups. “The punishment of hell will be in keeping with divine justice.
The all-knowing God will assess each individual life, counting exactly the extent of abandonment to sin, the influence of others to sin, and the light and privilege abused, and he will assign punishment accordingly—exactly fitted to each person.” (the Gospel Coalition: Zaspel and Martin)
Final question: Will our deeds send us to Hell? You might expect a resounding: Yes” but I think you’d be wrong. Our deeds will quantify our depth of punishment, but Hell is reserved for those who refused Christ’s sacrifice on the cross when he paid for our sins in full.
1 John 2:2 asserts, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Christ died for all men, for all sin, for all time.
All sin has been paid for but not everyone will receive the gift of their account with God being paid in full by Christ’s death and resurrection. Our choice in this matter will determine our final destination.
Will you accept the sacrifice of Christ which paid the spiritual penalty for your sins? Or will you choose to face Christ on Judgement Day based on your own righteousness?
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.
