Modern people have a hard time getting around the concept of hell and a “loving God.” They can’t imagine a loving God consigning multitudes of people to an eternal punishment.
We have come a long way, it seems, from the “hell fire and damnation” sermons of a bygone age. We have also ignored fifty percent of the character of God:
“Note then the kindness and severity of God: Severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off” (Romans 11:22, ESV).
I think we need to reevaluate our understanding of what sin is, who sins, and how severe a condition it is.
What should our “loving” God do with tyrannical dictators, mass murderers and abusive parents? Have we actually sat down and considered the debilitating effect of our own sin on others? Have we thought through what the Lord’s death on the cross says about the depth and cost of our sin?
I know this isn’t easy; looking at our sin in the clear light of God’s will is a little like staring into the sun. It is painful, tear-wrenching, and concentrates the mind wonderfully.
God is not so much a God of unconditional love as he is a God of grace. Sure he loves us, in a way that no human has ever or could ever love us, but he also calls us to repentance.
Grace reminds us both of his profound love and our profound debt. Grace induces both deep relief and chest constricting fear. Grace teaches us the price of forgiveness and the cost of sin. Dear reader, grace teaches us both, not one or the other!
When people ask how a good God could allow people to enter a place of eternal punishment I want to remind them that if anyone enters heaven at all it’s because of God’s grace. If God forgave one person in history, that would be one more than he was obliged to forgive.
That he forgives daily, continually, that he forgives the undeserving, the sinful, the morally filthy, that he forgives any of us – now that is the truth about his grace. Consign a sinner to hell? Please remember that if we were treated justly, every one of us would be on the road to perdition.
God is a loving God not because he would never punish but because those whom he forgives are legion! We trifle with God when we see his grace as his obligation. We test him when we think of his forgiveness as his debt to us. He owes us not a thing; we owe him everything.