Hell is a tragic place. Nobody likes to talk about it. I don't even much less like to write about it. However, Hell isn't just an opinion.
It's much easier to accept the existence of a heaven than a hell. And perhaps that might be a good starting place with people who are not Christians: When God creates a new heaven and a new earth. That is what redemption is about. However, there is a difficulty that the Bible doesn't give much of a description of Heaven. But on the flip side, Heaven concerns itself with who is there, and life, and joy.
Our experience here on earth is between final and ultimate judgment. And sure, many religions may not claim a final and ultimate judgment. But regardless, if anyone is honestly investigating religion, death is going to be a serious issue to consider. Death comes to us all.
In the beginning, in the garden of Eden, when God commanded Adam and Eve "you must not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil" he added the law "that when you eat of it you shall surely die." But what happened? Adam and Eve were still there walking around trying to justify themselves. Did they not die?
When the body dies, it doesn't disappear. It breaks down and begins to putrefy. It stinks. The same is with the soul. The soul doesn't cease to exist. It breaks down. It stinks in your mouth, in your filthy language, lies, deceit and corrupts you. It begins to putrefy. Sure you might be civilly good (for the most part). But when it comes down to it, your whole life and person is decaying. You are dead.
God has created us as eternal creatures. If we remain in sin, we continue to break down, even after physical death, and into the garbage heap of the "after life" which is called Hell. This stench isn't merely a reality of the after life. Today, you are dead in sin, and the corruption of body and soul ultimately gets worse. Death is gross and it plagues you now.
So what do you do? Drop dead to yourself. Stop walking around trying to justify yourself.
Dropping dead is repentance. It's letting go of your works to justify yourself and letting God redeem you in Christ Jesus. You have nothing, God is everything. So let go of yourself and let Christ be your all.
Religion that is man made refuses to repent. It has all these man made philosophies, ideologies and isms that excuse you to remain in sin. Repentance is unnatural to us. We want to cling to whatever life we have with our own strength and will. We want to do what we want, when we want. But in reality you are hanging on to your own rotting death. Repentance is what we need. Repentance is seeing yourself with the eyes of God and turning to him in his life.
Man made religion thinks we can repent on our own and stop sinning on our own. Liberal religion thinks we don't need to repent. Yet all man made religions either want you to continue as you are, or think you just need to repent a little. Either way, you still continue as you are in sin. Hell shows that we need to repent every bit. Every bit is corrupted.
Sin isn't merely a bunch of isolated, singular things we do. It is a symptom of who we are by nature of the heart. Our whole life is of sin. Sin is a condition of our attitude and orientation to God. Plural sins are merely outward manifestations of the sin diseased heart. You cannot fight the disease by fending off the symptoms. It can't be cured by stopping them or trying to cover them up. So stop walking around trying to justify yourself. Sin is fatal.
This is what redemption is all about. Saving us from sin, death, and the devil who would ultimately want us to corrupt eternally in Hell. Redemption brings us back to God. This is what true religion is about, true redemption, true repentance, being born again with new hearts, saying "thanks be to God, who gave us Christ, declared us dead in his death, and raises us alive with his life."
Repenting in Christ is letting Christ be our life. We look forward to the day when there will be no sin amongst us, and when we have new bodies. But when we do sin, we confess it is dealt with in Christ. This is why the devil doesn't mind preaching straight up morality. No one can morally purify themselves, and we are still left in sin. But Christ takes them away in his atoning sacrifice. It is not about self-help, but about help from above. Repentance isn't necessarily about never sinning again. But it is about seeing sin for what it is, seeing ourselves and thinking, Why do I keep doing that? Am I an idiot? And thereby clinging to Christ in faith in his grace. Romans 7.
Hell, is an important topic in the scheme of salvation. And I think as Christians we often short change unbelievers when we dance around it. But when you include everything in context it is much more compelling.
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