This title really makes you wonder about why salvation is vital to our survival after this life. There IS life after this one. One is in the Kingdom of Almighty God, Heaven. Where the angels and the Son of God, Jesus, live. Along with all those before us who believed in Jesus, received His gift of salvation, gave their hearts and lives over to Him and faithfully served Him. The other is Hell. A lot of people believe that Hell is where Satan is, but that is not the case at all when you study the Scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the hidden truths found in those Scriptures. Satan is actually on the Earth! And has access to what we would call the first and second Heaven. Remember Genesis 1:1 clearly tells us that God created the HEAVENS and the Earth. HEAVENS! Meaning more than one. The Heaven God is in is the one no mortal can ever reach in this life. In order to enter the level of Heaven, you must pass from this life to the other with Jesus as Lord and Savior. If you have not received Jesus as Lord and Savior when you pass from this life, the Bible clearly tells us that we will indeed go to Hell. Satan will surely go to Hell. There's no doubt about that. However, the Bible tells us in Revelation 20:10 that, "And the devil who had deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are; and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever". So, what this Scripture is telling us is that Satan WILL be cast into the lake of fire, which is Hell. But this passage of Scripture is telling what WILL happen in the end. Not now. Revelation is the vision Jesus gave His disciple, John, on the Island of Patmos, to write down and tell all people about. Jesus is warning us in the book of Revelation what will happen in the end of this world, whether we like it or not.
So, if Satan is destined to be cast into Hell in the end of this world, where is he now? Like I said, he's here on this Earth. And he has access to the first two Heavens. Look at the conversation between God and Satan in Job 1:6-12 (Holman Christian Standard Bible Version):
6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan[a] also came with them.
7 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”
"From roaming the Earth and walking around" (I know it says, "on it", but a better translation would be:) "in it." So, Satan is roaming the Earth here. Now look at 1 Peter 5:8 (New King James Version),
8 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
Peter is warning us here that Satan is STILL on this Earth! Remember when Jesus went into the wilderness? Let's look at that again.
Matthew 4:1-11 (New International Version)
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Here again we see Satan on the Earth. Not in Hell. Why is it so important to emphasize this? Because even the slightest misleading about God and Satan can be fatal to the Christian believer. We MUST know the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing BUT the Truth in Jesus mighty Name! Why? Because Jesus said it clearly in John 14:6, “I am the way and the TRUTH and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father, except through Me."
If you do not receive God's gift of Salvation through His Son, Jesus, and accept Him as Lord and Savior, if you do not give your life to Him, you will not go to Heaven! Matthew 16:25, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." What does that mean? That means if you choose to live your way and refuse God's way, you will lose the life you've chosen to more than just death! You'll lose it to sin, to evil, to the ways of this world. And you will spiritually drown in the storms of this life you have chosen over God. Which is exactly what you do when you reject God and live the way everyone else is. When you choose to live your own way and do things your own way, you leave yourself defenseless to the enemy who indeed IS Satan! You will have no covering, no protection, no back up when you encounter difficult times, moments of loss, of sadness, of desperation. You may believe that you know what you're doing living your own life, but in all reality, you really don't.
Why? Because when you "have it your way", as they say, you render yourself literally blind to the snares and traps the enemy has laid out for you. Snares and traps that will bring you grief, despair, deception, ignorance to truth and reality. You'll turn to drugs, alcohol, sexual sins and temptations, lust, fleshly things like that. Because you will be living in the flesh and not in the spirit. Why is that so important? Whether we live in the flesh or the spirit? Aren't we already living in the flesh? We have skin, don't we? They call that flesh, don't they? Yes, but that's not what we mean. Yes, we are flesh and blood. We're covered in flesh, but what we're talking about is living IN the flesh as in yielding to the fleshes cravings. See, the flesh is natured in sin. That nature of the flesh is sin. Just as the nature of a snake is to bite!
What we're talking about here is basically the difference between living IN the flesh and living FOR the flesh. We all live in flesh, that's true. But as Christians, we have brought the nature of our flesh into obedience to our spirits, which have been made in the image of God. I know it's confusing to most people, but I think I can help you understand better.
Romans 8:5-11
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, (meaning going to Hell) but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (meaning going to Heaven)
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, (It does not want to hear the truth of their sins, because it's not comfortable for them. They don't want to hear the true horror of their actions. Actions they thought were harmless and hurt no one, not even themselves and they won't realize that until they either repent or it's too late and they're in Hell burning for all time.) for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. (Why not? Because without Jesus, without the aid of the Holy Spirit living in you, there is no way to submit to something you are totally oblivious to!) Your eyes have been blinded to the truth. You've been deceived by the enemy! You don't see the danger laying in wait for you ahead! You have no idea the road you are on has a sign up ahead that reads: "DANGER! BRIDGE OUT!" And you drive right off that cliff and crash because you did not accept Jesus into your life and let Him make a way across that gap on that road that would've kept your from crashing.)
8 Those who are in the flesh CANNOT please God. (Hebrews 11 clearly tells us that without faith, you cannot please God. And if you are in the flesh, you have no faith to apply that will please the Lord our God.)
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. (Paul is talking to those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior here. This is the message Christians need to hear time and time again so their faith can be refreshed because in our walk with Christ, we will encounter situations that make it very difficult for us to maintain that faith and may even have us questioning our faith. Many people love to ask why God would allow such things to happen in this world if He is a God of love and peace. God didn't allow any of this to happen! We did! By rejecting God's Word and accepting what this world would have them believe as reality and truth.) Anyone who does NOT have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. (As in, "Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity! I NEVER knew you. Words you NEVER want to hear from the Lord God Almighty.)
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
The best passage of Scripture I have found to best explain why we need to be saved is the account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter asking Him to let him come to Him on that water.
Matthew 14:22-33:
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd.
23 After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone,
24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”
29 “Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
This is a textbook example of why we need to be saved. Peter sees Jesus walking on the water. And while the other disciples were shaking in fear thinking it was a ghost, Peter had the boldness and the faith to ask the Lord to let him come to Him ON the water! And for a short time, Peter walked on the water with Jesus! But when Peter saw how furious the storms around him were, what happened? He took his eyes off of Jesus. When you take your eyes off of Jesus, you will sink into the seas and storms going on around you and they will consume you! Never take your eyes off the Lord. But Peter cried out, "LORD! SAVE ME!!!" And IMMEDIATELY!!! Jesus reached out to him and saved him. How many of you are going through storms and seas in life that surround you and seem like they're going to consume you? Cry out to Jesus and He will IMMEDIATELY reach out for you just as He reached out for Peter!
And if He'll save Peter, who cut a man's ear off and cussed out a young girl who recognize him as one of Christ's disciples, what makes you think he won't reach out for you? Trust me, He surely will. All you have to do is call to Him. Cry out to Him if you have to! But turn to Jesus today and let Him pull you OUT of that sea that's trying to drown you!
Why should we be saved? Because we are totally lost in sin!
Romans 10:3-12,
3 "Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5 Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.”
6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into Heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down)
7 “or "Who will descend into the deep?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? “The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim:
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him."
God offers His gift to all of us! It's beautifully wrapped in the grace of God! It has your name on it! It's for you! Are you seriously going to tell me you're not going to open a present someone gives you? Do you refuse Birthday or Christmas presents when you get them? Of course not. So, why are you refusing this one? IT'S FROM YOUR FATHER! YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER! THE FATHER WHO CREATED YOU EVEN AT THE TIME OF CONCEPTION! HE FORMED YOU IN YOUR MOTHER'S WOMB! HE MADE THIS GIFT ESPECIALLY FOR YOU! IT HAS YOUR NAME ON IT! TO: ADAM. LOVE, FATHER! TO: AMBER. LOVE, FATHER! IT'S YOURS!
Luke 15:3-6
3 Then Jesus told them this parable:
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
Guess who that lost sheep is? You! Me! All of us are that lost sheep! And God has sent His only begotten Son to find us and save us from eternal death! Why should you be saved? To escape eternal death and live in Paradise with Jesus!
Another reason we need to be saved is because we are under God's wrath. Let me tell you something. God's wrath is a perfect as His love and His love is as perfect as His wrath. And that's a fact!
Ephesians 2:3-10
3 "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4 But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us WITH Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (When you receive Jesus as Lord as Savior, you are automatically seated in "heavenly realms", the Scriptures say, with Jesus Himself! Think of the love God has for all of us to do that when we receive His Son?)
7 in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
We do have work to do! What work? Tell the world about Him. Tell the world about what Jesus did, not just for you and me, but for them. When you make it personal in your testimony about Jesus and you put the person you're witnessing to in that picture telling them Jesus did that for them, you have reached that person's very soul. Why? Because most people today don't even think about that. They don't picture themselves on that cross, and why would they? They don't entertain the thought that it was supposed to be them up there, not Him. Everything Jesus suffered at the time of His crucifixion was intended for all of us. But Jesus stepped in and took our place so we can live and come home to our Father when it is time.
Romans 5:6-21
6 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.
14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
John 3:18
"Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the Name of God’s One and only Son."
We need to be saved because we are in danger of burning in Hell.
Hebrews 9:24-28
24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; He entered Heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.
25 Nor did He enter Heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But He has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
We need to be saved because we are spiritually dead!
Colossians 2:13
"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins."
Until you come to Christ and repent of your sins and receive Him as Lord and Savior, you will remain spiritually dead! Which is far worse than being physically dead. Spiritually dead means you walk around in life with no conscience, no remorse, no shame, no guilt, and yet the life you live should produce all of these reactions in you. So, why can't they? Because you are spiritually dead. You have no moral compass in you to know that the way you're living now is taking you down to the grave! But when you receive Jesus into your life, look at what this last passage said, "God made you alive with Christ!" That's what happens when you repent of your sins, ask and receive God's forgiveness and make Jesus Lord of your life! You go from being flatline on God's radar, to alive and well in Christ Jesus and ALL OF HEAVEN is celebrating your coming to the Lord!!! Somebody shout a shout of praise where you are today!!!!!!!!
We need to be saved because our hearts have been hardened by sin and evil in this world!
Jeremiah 17:1-18
1“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies
in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”
11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.
12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
15 They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!”
16 I have not run away from being your Shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair.
What passes my lips is open before you.
17 Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let my persecutors be put to shame but keep me from shame; let them be terrified but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction."
Ephesians 4:17-32
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned.
21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
26 “In your anger do not sin”[d]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
We need to be saved because we are enslaved to sin and Satan!
Romans 3:9-18
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike ARE ALL UNDER THE POWER OF SIN!
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
(See also 2 Timothy 2:26 and Romans 6:18)
And finally, we need to be saved because WE ARE at odds with God Himself.
Once again, Romans 8:5-8
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
Bottom line, we need to be saved by Christ Jesus so we do not die in our sins and go to Hell to burn for all time! Many people like to joke that Hell is a big wild party full of beer and girls. If you really believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona I would love to sell you! Jesus Himself told us all about Hell. In fact, Jesus talked twice as much about Hell as He did Heaven.
Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible. He referred to it as a place of “outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). In other words, all the joys that we associate with light will be withdrawn, and all the fears that we associate with darkness will be multiplied. And the result will be an intensity of misery that makes a person grind his teeth in order to bear it.
Jesus also refers to hell as a “fiery furnace” where law-breakers will be thrown at the end of the age when he returns. “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41–42). He calls it “the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22), “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41), “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46).
This last description— “eternal punishment”—is especially heartrending and fearful because it is contrasted with “eternal life.” “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” In this contrast we hear the tragedy of loss as well as suffering and endlessness. Just as “eternal life” will be a never-ending experience of pleasure in God’s presence, so “eternal punishment” will be a never-ending experience of misery under God’s wrath (John 3:36; 5:24).
The word wrath is important for understanding what Jesus meant by hell. Hell is not simply the natural consequence of rejecting God. Some people say this in order to reject the thought that God sends people there. They say that people send themselves there. That is true. People make choices that lead to hell. But it is not the whole truth. Jesus says these choices are really deserving of hell. “Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to [that is, guilty of, or deserving of] the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22). That is why he calls hell “punishment” (Matthew 25:46). It is not a mere self-imposed natural consequence (like cigarette smoking leading to lung cancer); it is the penalty of God’s wrath (like a judge sentencing a criminal to hard labor).
The images Jesus uses of how people come to be in hell do not suggest natural consequence but the exercise of just wrath. For example, he pictures the servant of a master who has gone on a journey. The servant says, “My master is delayed,” and he “begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards.” Then Jesus says (referring to his own sudden second coming), “The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:48–51). This picture represents legitimate and holy rage followed by punishment. Jesus will “put” him with the hypocrites.
Jesus told another story to illustrate his departure from the earth and his return in judgment. He said, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. . .. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us’” (Luke 19:12, 14). When the nobleman returned in his kingly power to reward those who had trusted and honored him with their lives, he punished those who rejected his kingship: “As for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me” (Luke 19:27). Again, the picture is not one of hell as a disease resulting from bad habits but of a king expressing holy wrath against those who rebuff his gracious rule.
This is why Jesus said, “Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). The fear he commands is not fear of hell as a natural consequence of bad habits, but of God as a holy judge who sentences guilty sinners to hell. This command to fear God as a holy judge seems discouraging at first. It seems as though following Jesus means leading a life of anxiety that God is angry with us and is ready to punish us at the slightest misstep. But that is not what Jesus calls us to experience as we follow him.
It seems amazing to us, perhaps, that immediately following his warning to “fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” Jesus says something designed to give us deep peace and full confidence under God’s fatherly care. The very next sentence goes like this: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29–31).
In the same breath Jesus says, “Fear God who casts into hell” and “Do not fear because God is your Father who values you more than the sparrows and knows your smallest need.” In fact, the all-providing fatherly care of God is one of Jesus’s sweetest and most pervasive teachings:
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? . . . Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Matthew 6:26, 31–32)
How does Jesus mean for us to experience these two truths about God—he is to be feared, and he is to be trusted? It won’t do to simply say that “fear of God” means “reverence for God” rather than “being afraid of him.” That does not fit with the words, “Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:5). Of course, it is true that we should reverence God, that is, stand in awe of his holiness and power and wisdom. But there is also a real fear of him that can coexist with sweet peace and trust in him.
The key is that God himself is the one who removes his wrath from us. Our peace does not come from our removing the God of wrath from our thinking, but from his removing his wrath from us. He has done that by sending Jesus to die in our place so that, for everyone who believes in Jesus, God’s wrath is taken away. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” Jesus said, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross to die], that whoever believes in him may have eternal life [not wrath] . . . . Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:14–15, 36). When Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), he was experiencing the wrath of God’s abandonment in our place—for he had never done anything to deserve being forsaken by God. And when he said finally from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), he meant that the price of our salvation—our deliverance from God’s wrath and into all God’s blessings—had been paid in full.
Jesus had said that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28), and now the full ransom was paid, and the work of absorbing and removing the wrath of God was finished. Now, he says, everyone who believes has everlasting fellowship with God and is fully assured that the wrath of the Judge is gone. “He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).
What then is left to fear? The answer is unbelief. For those who follow Jesus, fearing God means fearing the terrible prospect of not trusting the one who paid such a price for our peace. In other words, one of the means that God uses to keep us peacefully trusting in Jesus is the fear of what God would do to us if we did not believe. The reason we do not live in the discomfort of constant fear is because we believe. That is, we rest in the all-sufficient work of Jesus and in our Father’s sovereign care. But at those moments when unbelief tempts us, a holy fear rises and warns us what a foolish thing it would be to distrust the one who loved us and gave his Son to die for our anxiety-free joy.
Jesus’s command that we fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell teaches us to see sin as more serious than we ever dreamed. The reason so many people feel that eternal hell is an unjust punishment for our sin is that they do not see sin as it really is. This is because they do not see God as he really is. When Jesus tells us what he will say to those who are going to hell he says, “Then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:23). They are workers of “lawlessness.” That is, they break God’s law. Sin is against God first, then man.
Therefore, the seriousness of sin arises from what it says about God. God is infinitely worthy and honorable. But sin says the opposite. Sin says that other things are more desirable and more worthy. How serious is this? The seriousness of a crime is determined, in part, by the dignity of the person and the office being dishonored. If the person is infinitely worthy and infinitely honorable and infinitely desirable and holds an office of infinite dignity and authority, then rebuffing him is an infinitely outrageous crime. Therefore, it deserves an infinite punishment. The intensity of Jesus’s words about hell is not an overreaction to small offenses. It is a witness to the infinite worth of God and to the outrageous dishonor of human sin.
Therefore, give heed to Jesus’s clear command to fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Hear it as a great mercy. What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus warns us. He does not leave us ignorant of the wrath to come. He not only warns. He rescues. This is the best effect of fear: it wakens us to our need for help and points us to the all-sufficient Redeemer, Jesus. Let it have this effect on you. Let it lead you to Jesus who says to everyone who believes in him, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
