The coming judgment

A study on eternal judgment.

In our final article on the basic principles of Hebrews 6, Campbell MacAlpine turns to the subject of eternal judgment.

We now come to the last of the six truths which should be absorbed into our lives if we are going to continually advance to maturity. We considered in the previous two articles the glorious prospect and hope for the Christian who dies before Jesus returns. However, as well as a resurrection of the just, there is also a resurrection of the unjust. As well as salvation, there is condemnation; as well as heaven there is hell; as well as there being eternal bliss, there is also eternal judgment.

Why should this teaching be so important? How should it affect our lives? There are various answers:

• We should be continually grateful to God that he ever saved us. Daily we should be thankful for his mercy to us, and that he has “delivered us from wrath to come”. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him” (Rom 5:89).
  
• We should continually desire to see people saved. The truth is that man without Christ is lost, and lost forever. We are called to be signposts to Jesus, to intercede for the lost, and to be available to bring the good news of the Gospel so that people can be saved from eternal judgment. As the old hymn puts it, “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.”
  
• We should present the truth of the Gospel. Paul could boldly declare, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew; then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom 1:16-18).

Paul states that the Gospel reveals two things: the righteousness of God and the wrath of God.

The Righteousness of God

First, the Gospel reveals that for man, who is totally unrighteous and can do nothing to make himself righteous, Christ's righteousness has been imputed to him when he believes in the Lord Jesus. “There is no-one righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10); “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21) and “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

Paul states that the Gospel reveals two things: the righteousness of God and the wrath of God.

What a powerful, life-changing message is contained in the Gospel. How gracious of God to pronounce a ‘not guilty’ verdict on us when we came to him. How merciful of him to look upon us as righteous because on the Cross Jesus took our unrighteousness.

The Wrath of God

The second thing the Gospel reveals is God’s wrath; his holy and just anger against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the sceptre of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy” (Heb 1:8-9).

How is the wrath of God revealed?

• It is revealed in man’s conscience. If a man does something wrong, he knows it, and although he may not agree, knows his wrong deserves punishment. Therefore, his first impulse is to hide his sin.
  
• God’s wrath is revealed in history when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. The wickedness of mankind increased and increased, until God in his holy justice had to intervene and everyone was destroyed when the Flood came, with the exception of eight people who were saved in the ark. God’s wrath on cities rife with immorality was revealed in Sodom and Gomorrah.
  
• As well as nations and cities, God's wrath against all ungodliness has been revealed in his judgments on individuals such as King Belshazzar, Korah, Gehazi, King Uzziah, King Herod, Ananias and Sapphira and the Corinthian believers failing to discern the Lord's Body during communion.
  
• God’s wrath is revealed in death. Satan lied to our first parents and assured them that if they disobeyed God they would not suffer – “you will not surely die” he whispered to them. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” Every time we pass a cemetery, or see a funeral, or read an obituary, we need to remember that the word of God declares, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
  
• However, the greatest revelation of God's wrath against sin is seen at the Cross. There we see what it cost the Lord Jesus, sinless, holy, spotless, pure, taking the punishment for our sins, taking the judgment, taking the wrath, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Hallelujah, what a Saviour! “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

The greatest revelation of God’s wrath against sin is seen at the Cross.

Importance of Warning

There are two essential contents of good teaching. One is feeding, and the other is warning. When you study the ministry of the Lord Jesus you find that his teaching was punctuated by warnings. “Watch out for false prophets”; “Be on your guard against men”; “Watch out! be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”

You also find this content in the teaching of Paul and the other Apostles. When Paul was visiting the leaders in Ephesus for the last time he exhorted them to “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers”. Then he said, “…for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28, 31).

So it is with the message of the Gospel. There is the proclamation and teaching of its glorious message which is “the power of God unto salvation.” It brings the wonderful invitation “whosoever will may come”, although the late Dr Tozer, in one of his wonderful writings, said the Gospel is not an invitation but an ultimatum: “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”

However, the message also brings a warning. The verse that says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned”, is the same verse that says, “whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

We do not seem to hear much warning today. When did you last hear a sermon on hell, or the wrath of God, or eternal punishment? I am not speaking about preachers taking delight in dangling their congregations over the hot flames or hell to try and scare them into the Kingdom of God. In years gone by that kind of preaching seemed to be quite prevalent. However, I think the pendulum has swung in the other direction.

Years ago I asked God never to allow me to preach about judgment unless my heart was filled with his love for the lost. In his faithfulness he has answered that prayer, sometimes causing others embarrassment. Although I have not been embarrassed, I have had to pause and weep.

In the same way that we cannot fully anticipate the joy awaiting the Christian, neither can we understand the desperate loss for those who reject the message of his love and grace. At a conference in Belgium some years ago, I sat next to a lady from a Middle Eastern country one lunch-time. In conversation I asked her how she came to know the Lord Jesus. She told me it was the result of a dream. She dreamt that she was in hell and described some terrors and horrors that were shown her. One thing that so impressed her was that there was fire but there was no light. She never rested until she came to the place of yielding her life to Christ. Yes, the message speaks of the righteousness of God, and the wrath of God.

In the same way that we cannot fully anticipate the joy awaiting the Christian, neither can we understand the desperate loss for those who reject the message of his love and grace.

What Then is Eternal Punishment?

There is no need to conjure up some human description or pass one’s personal opinion. The safest thing to do is simply take what the word of God says. Eternal punishment is:

• Eternal separation from God: “This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (2 Thess 1:7-9).
• Being in the company of the devil and his angels: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41).
• Darkness and sorrow: They “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:12).
• Everlasting shame: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).
• A place of no return: Jesus gave one of the most revealing insights when he told the story in Luke 16, of the rich man and Lazarus. To the rich man who lived without God, and died without God, he said, “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us” (Luke 16:26).

Who Will Be There?

Those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36). “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death” (Rev 21:8).

In the light of this sobering truth it is good to know that God does not want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). How great is the love and grace of God in sending the Lord Jesus to die and rise again that we might be delivered from wrath to come. What confidence we can have in the Gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to all who will believe it. So let us be thankful for his salvation and his keeping power. Let us proclaim the good news of a Saviour, and let us go on to maturity.

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment (Heb 6:1, NKJV).

Let us take as our resolve the words of the next verse, “This will we do…”

Questions

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an invitation, and also a warning. Why is the warning so important?
   
2. Why is it, do you think, that so little is preached about God’s wrath?
3. How will this teaching affect your life in the future?
4. Why do you think that Jesus preached more about hell than anyone else?

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.