Daily Devotions
Who Deserves Hell?
Reading for September 5th: Ezekiel 21-22
"The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice... Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their own way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 22:29, 31
A couple of years back, Vice President Joe Biden made some strong statements in response to the beheadings of two American journalists. He vowed that the U.S. would follow those terrorists "to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice, because hell is where they will reside."
Those are strong words.
I would argue that he is absolutely right. I believe you do, too. Even if you don't normally like the idea of hell or find it a little bit harsh, there's something about what these terrorists have done that is so barbaric and is just so wrong that hell seems to be an appropriate punishment.
Why do we think so? Why do we long for justice? Why does it bother us that these cold blooded killers have not been punished?
It's because we bear the imprint of our Maker! God hates murder! He hates when the innocent suffer! He hates injustice! He hates sin!
Going a step further, it should be said that God hates injustice and sin much more deeply and profoundly than we do. Our view of sin is skewed because we're sinners. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. We are not pure light. Even the most righteous among us still has sin.
That's why we stand up and cheer when someone calls for someone who is a notorious sinner to go to hell. We see them (or, at least, perceive them) as worse than ourselves, and thus deserving of eternal punishment. Hell should be reserved for those who (in our mind at least) are really, really, REALLY bad!
But, maybe our view is not perfect. Perhaps God's righteous and holy ways and standards are a little higher than our own. It could be that we fail to see our sin as that bad because we're so used to it and accustomed to it. Maybe if we saw sin from the perspective of One who does not sin and, indeed, cannot sin, we might see that all of us deserve to go to hell.
Father, we hate sin. Help us to hate it as you hate it! Help us to see sin with your eyes and to eliminate it from our lives!
