It is real and so is He

“How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29 ESV)

Throughout the Bible, God's wrath appears. God responds to disobedience, sometimes with death. This begs the question: If Achan was destroyed for his disobedience (Joshua 7), why is our world in such disobedience and goes on unpunished?

Perhaps the answer is in Romans 1:28, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”  Perhaps the sustaining nature of society's sin is the punishment, a punishment that culminates in the coming of Christ and the destruction of evil.

Hell is the ultimate eventuality for all who reject God. What we must understand is that our hope of salvation is tied directly to the reality of hell. Jesus is the one who spoke the most on hell, but how does the existence of hell give us hope?

Jesus told us that He was the Son of God. He came in the incarnation and told us he would be killed, buried, and walk again alive. He was crucified, died, and was resurrected, so we have assurances that if Christ is the Son of God, and all the things he said about himself were true, then all the things Jesus said about hell are authentic as well.

Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” Those who reject the gospel will be punished, but those worthy of the kingdom will find relief in their suffering.

As evangelists, we try to reveal to unbelievers the seriousness and reality of hell. We try to reveal the impending, urgent need for the gospel to avoid an eternity in hell. In scripture, Jesus tells us about hell, its horrid existence, and the real destructive attributes of hell. Yet Jesus offers the escape in his blood.

Friend, there is only one way to hell. You must trample over the cross of Christ. You must treat as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctifies him, you must insult the Spirit of grace, and you must reject the living God. You must spit in the face of the risen Lord, and you must refuse to change.

Jesus is there before you, in scripture, in the word of God, saying, No, you must not go to hell. I paid in death and blood so you can be saved; do not go. To trample over the cross of Christ is to reject the Lord and accept eternity in hell. Is that what you really want to do?

Seek Jesus, embrace the cross, and place your faith in Christ. Please, do not blindly continue your walk into hell. Please.

Grace and Peace!