Daily Devotions
Hell is Real & It Is Necessary
Reading for December 19th: Hebrews 7-10
Weekly reading for December 13-19: Revelation 6-11
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
Revelation 6:9-10
One of the reasons skeptics give for their unbelief in the God of the Bible is that they can't understand how God is presented as a God of love and also a God of wrath and vengeance. This doubt is intensified by the descriptions in the Bible of a place of eternal torment. How could a loving God do something like that?
The main problem with this line of reasoning is that it ignores the necessity of justice. Could we believe that God is moral if sin and wickedness were left unpunished? The skeptic who wants to imagine a deity who is defined by love, and yet who at the same time completely ignores evil will have a difficult time defending the morality of his god.
The Bible, however, describes God as both loving and just. Jehovah God proclaimed his name to Moses on the mountain, saying,"The LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." Exodus 34:6-7
But aren't these two characteristics, love and justice, mutually exclusive? Doesn't God have to choose either one or the other? No, not with the cross. In the sacrifice of his only Son, God was able to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:26).
This leaves the burden of sin on our hands. God has offered us a means of redemption from our sins. If we rebelliously reject this gift of love, who is to blame? Can we rightly shake our fist at God for judging us when he has paid the ultimate price to try to save us from his own wrath?
Great God and Father, who is both just and loving, we bow before you and confess that you are perfectly holy in all your ways! Forgive us for our sins and help us to appreciate your sacrifice more every day!
