Why We Need Hell
Isaiah 6: 1-5
Kevin Miller of the Huffington Post writes, “After Wade Michael Page allegedly opened fire in a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee, a commenter expressed his disgust online: "Meet Wade Michael Page, white supremacist and latest entrant to the gates of Hell." Lynn Johnson, who was in the Chicago theater with her children when James Eagan Holmes started shooting, expressed her hope that he would "burn in hell" for his crimes. And when Seal Team 6 assassinated Osama Bin Laden, Mike Huckabee responded to the news with a glib, ‘Welcome to hell, bin Laden.’ As these and numerous other examples demonstrate…. “We demand it (Hell) as punishment when human perpetrators are involved. How should we interpret this phenomenon? Does it merely reflect the faith position of the observers? In some cases, definitely. But when one considers that only 58% of Americans believe in Hell, why would people still be so quick to grasp for” hell?” Some have said we need it to give meaning to tragedies. It gives us hope for justice, especially when we feel powerless in a situation, and hope in knowing someone is out there who cares, who knows our suffering and who has the power to hold the perpetrators to account for their crimes.
Can we have a heaven without a hell? Not if, according to the three prophetic religions, we all live under divine justice. Judaism, Christianity and Islam each envision a Last Judgment on all the living and the resurrected dead at the end of time. Jews have concluded that the wicked perish and go to Sheol and only the righteous will be resurrected to eternal life when the Messiah comes. According to the Qur'an, the wicked suffer a painful wrenching of soul from body. Even in the grave, the hot flames of hell sear the bodies of sinners, while their errant souls writhe in a foul pit of snakes. Christianity says that each individual is judged and consigned to heaven or hell based on the sin and the severity of their punishment is directly tied to the severity of their sin. The punishment fits the crime.
So why do we need a hell? First, we come to understand God’s holiness. In order to believe in Hell and judgment, one must believe that there is a God, who is so exalted, so high and lifted up, so Holy and awesome, that to reject and to spurn him, is the greatest sin of all! Our problem is that in our theology, we have brought God down to our level, thinking of him as our friend and almost one of us. We did it to make him more accessible but in doing so, we have stripped away our awe and His holiness and power. But when we encounter God’s holiness, it changes everything. Listen to Isaiah’s encounter with God’s holiness: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips…’” (Isaiah 6:1-5) When you understand perfect holiness then you understand that sin cannot be in His midst. What’s interesting is that we don’t think twice about keeping a hospital or a crime scene or our food or water clean and uncontaminated but when it comes to God and our sin, it seems to be another matter. When we are given some sense of God in his majesty, Holiness and goodness, we can begin to understand an ultimate banishment from the presence of God.
The issue of sin and damnation isn’t so much a matter of what we actually did to deserve hell, rather it is more a matter of who we did it against, who we rebelled against, spurned, rejected, and disowned, an awesome, all powerful and holy God! King David, the adulterer and murderer, confessed to the God whom he had grieved, “Against You, You only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight…”(Psalm 51)
Second, hell helps us understand the true nature of sin and to claim our own sin. Listen again to Isaiah 6: ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’” Isaiah 6:5 It’s when you see and experience the very presence of God, then you are confronted with your own sin. We are told by eyewitnesses to the Lewis revival of the 1950′s, that when God revealed himself to teenagers at a dance, they fell on their faces and many separately confessed, “Hell would be too good for me, O LORD….for I have seen you…have mercy upon me a sinner!” While we are quick to judge and condescend other’s sins, Pastor Tim Brister says we often try to minimize our own by trying to defend it by making excuses, pretending it didn’t happen, concealing it, blaming others, downplaying it or rationalizing it by making ourselves better than we are. We even have softened names for sin: mistakes, blundersmor we say we dropped the ball. Yet when we encounter the true and perfect holiness of God, we grasp for the first time the true nature and gravity of sin and the sin of our lives and the fact that we would never want to contaminate the holiness of God with our sin.
Third, hell reveals how just God is. Throughout history, people have thought of God as a corrupt judge, yes I said corrupt. A corrupt judge is one who sets aside the demands of justice simply because he likes or even loves the defendant. But God is not corrupt. He is a perfect and an absolute just and righteous judge. Over and over, the Bible makes this point. When God reveals himself to Moses, he declares himself to be compassionate and loving, but he also says, “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.” The Psalms declare that “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.” By His very nature of being a just judge, he can’t simply set justice aside and sweep sin under the rug. He must deal with it—decisively and with exacting justice. When God finally judges, not one sin will receive more punishment than it deserves. And not one will receive less than it deserves, either. The Bible tells us that on that day, when God sentences his enemies (those who rebel and sin against him) to hell, the whole universe will recognize and acknowledge that what He has decided is unimpeachably just and right. Isaiah makes this point when he declares, “The Lord of Hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.” Then we will know and affirm how just God truly is.
Fourth, hell teaches that there are repercussions in life. In Romans 1-2, Paul explains that God gives them up to the sinful passions of their hearts and in Jeremiah 31, God says he is no longer going to punish us directly in this life but that he will let us live with the repercussions of our decisions. This will be our punishment. A life without repercussions leads to chaos. That’s how we learn. I was pulling into the parking lot next door at the doctor’s office Sunday morning on Sept. 15 and saw a van on the other side of Whitney with a young man slumped over. Another car was parked immediately behind it but then pulled in behind me in the parking lot. A man got out and ran across to move the van. I went over to the second man who told me he was a paramedic and had been driving behind the van when he saw it almost hit two light poles and then almost drive into the canal. The young man had been up all night partying, doing drugs and drinking and now at 7:30 in the morning was just headed home. He told the young man, who was 19, to call his family to come pick him up and if he didn’t then he was going to call the police. One way or another, there were going to be repercussions and he would have to learn from this. And that’s the way life is both here on earth and in the life to come.
Fifth, hell teaches us the depth of God’s love and grace. The Biblical images of fire and outer darkness is a vivid picture of what life in hell is like, where we are separated from God. Isaiah 59:2 says sin excludes us from God's 'face' or presence, but in hell we will also experience physical, spiritual and emotional pain for all eternity. That’s is a frightening prospect, to be eternally separated from God. That’s the worst thing that can happen to us! Why? We were originally created to walk in God's immediate presence (Genesis 2.) God’s presence is to us like water is to a fish- away from it our life slowly ebbs away. We were made to be in relationship with God both in this life and in the life to come.
In addition to all of the pain, the taunts, the whiplashes and hanging on the cross slowly suffocating to death, when Jesus took on the sins of the world, He too was separated from God. It’s why he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet Jesus willingly took this burden and paid the price for our sin. What he felt on the cross was far worse because of the relationship he lost. If an acquaintance denounces you and rejects you--that hurts. If a good friend does the same--that hurts far worse. However, if your spouse walks out on you saying, "I never want to see you again," that is far more devastating still. The longer, deeper, and more intimate the relationship, the more tortuous the separation. Jesus’ relationship to the Father was eternal. Thus, his loss was infinitely greater than the most intimate and passionate human relationship. Yet, he was willing to pay the price and it was worth it. Isaiah 53:11 says, "The results of his suffering he shall see, and shall be satisfied" What a thought! Jesus suffered infinitely more than any human soul in eternal hell, yet he looks at us and says, "It was worth it." What could make us feel more loved and valued than that?
Sixth, Hell focuses our minds on the task of proclaiming the gospel. If hell is real, and if people are truly in danger of spending eternity there, then there is no more urgent and important task than to proclaim to the world the good news that forgiveness of sins is offered through Jesus Christ.
We need hell because it helps us understand God’s holiness and that God is just. It enables us to understand not only the gravity of sin but to identify and claim our own sin. We are reminded that there are repercussions to our actions and our decisions, not only in this life but in the life to come. It also allows us to understand the depth and breadth of God’s love and grace and the distance and depth he was willing to go to save us. Finally, Hell reminds us that there is an eternity hanging in the balance and it, more than anything else, should create a sense of urgency in being a disciple who makes disciples. Amen and Amen
