To not speak of hell is also to forget or ignore the great benefits of Christ and his saving work.
In our modern day and age, it seems as if few people are concerned about hell. Christians are frequently afraid or shunned from talking about it, or perhaps more commonly, Christian preachers and apologists are asked questions about hell in hopes they will explain it away. On the other hand, much of the modern church’s language and imagination concerning hell does not even come from the Bible, but from Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost. While these brilliant literary works create a powerful picture of hell, they do not constitute a useful confession of hell. These two approaches to hell leave us with nothing but extremes: on the one hand, we have a picture of hell based on speculation, while on the opposite hand, only silence or minimization.
What the Christian really needs is to be equipped to say something both serious yet straightforward about hell. The strongest example of this need is the ministry of Christ. The weight and thrust of Christ’s preaching of the law includes clear statements that the consequence for sin and the danger of remaining in it is the judgment, fire, and suffering of hell. Christians sometimes fear that our ministry of love will be negatively impacted when the topic of hell comes up. Yet Christ, who not only proclaims the love of God is Love itself (1 John 4:8), possessed no such fear. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus referenced hell over a dozen times according to the Gospel accounts. Ministers of the gospel must then do as Christ institutes,“teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20), and speak about hell in simple yet serious terms.
The Chain of Sin
Like justification, salvation, resurrection, and eternal life are a group of benefits which God delivers through faith in Christ, hell is part of a group of punishments or consequences for sin. Just as the resurrection of the body is the final hope of Christians, hell is the final location and condition of the sinner. Death follows sin and the finality of hell follows death. Speaking about hell starts by understanding clearly that we are sinners. That is, creatures at enmity with God, living apart from faith—desiring to be separated from him. Hell is a place (Matt. 5:29-30, Mark 9:43.45.47, 2 Peter 2:4, Luke 12:5). The location of eternal separation from God: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might”(2 Thess. 1:9).
We need not fear hell because of elaborate schemes of torture, but because we plainly see that sin and death are real. Sin and death have a final end for those apart from Christ. Death carries the eternal exclusion and suffering of hell. It is enough to say hell is a place where sin and the sinner gets what he desires. In hell, the rebellion against God’s will is complete, eternal damnation is forever being removed from God (Isa 59:2). This is the final place where there will be no word of promise or gift of love from God. Apart from God’s clear word for us, the damned suffer God’s silence. And the silence of God leaves the conscience forever in terror with only the judgment of sin. This means the sinner in hell is eternally under God’s law. “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse” (Gal. 3:10), and “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”(1 Cor. 15:56)
For some hardened by their sin, the response to the above description might be something like “Good, I didn't want or need God anyways.” In reply to this, we do not need to think of ways to make hell worse; you cannot merely scare someone into loving God since the law always “brings wrath” (Rom. 4:15). Instead we simply believe and proclaim vigorously that apart from God there is nothing good. There is no mercy, no love, no beauty, no fulfillment—only the suffering of fire (Mark 9:43), darkness (Matt 22:13), torment (Luke 16:23), and weeping (Matt 8:12). This fate belongs to all sinners, that is to the whole world in its fall and rebellion against God.
Prevailing Against the Gates of Hell
But in the midst of our war to abandon God and march into hell, “God so loved the world that he sent his Son” (John 3:16). Christ took on sin, suffered death, and descended into hell (1 Peter 3:18-19), and arose victorious. His victory is a rescue snatching us from the gates of hell (Matt 16:18). For those who belong to Christ in faith, the sting of death is gone, its permanence is destroyed. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’” (John 11:25). Denying hell does not make one a “merciful theologian,” [1] but robs the sinner of God’s proper force of the law to accuse and drive the sinner to Christ.
We must speak about hell, but wherever and whenever we do, our final word must be that Christ himself has delivered you; not from some ethereal undefined danger but from the suffering of hell itself, from the danger of being removed from God.
To not speak of hell is also to forget or ignore the great benefits of Christ and his saving work. This is why the devil and the world desire and work for Christians to be silent about hell. When hell is removed, “they indicate that they need no grace, no life, no paradise, no heaven, no Christ, no God, nor any other good thing.” [2] Christian preaching ought not take any pleasure in hell or leverage it as a means to lift ourselves in high esteem against those we find deserving of it. Instead we must truly count ourselves as deserving hell but joyfully rescued from its grasp:
There was no counsel, no help, no comfort for us until this only and eternal Son of God, in his unfathomable goodness, had mercy on us because of our misery and distress and came from heaven to help us. Those tyrants and jailers have now been routed, and their place has been taken by Jesus Christ, the Lord of life, righteousness, and every good and blessing. He has snatched us, poor lost creatures, from the jaws of hell, won us, made us free, and restored us to the Father’s favor and grace. As his own possession he has taken us under his protection and shelter, in order that he may rule us by his righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness. [3]
We must speak about hell, but wherever and whenever we do, our final word must be that Christ himself has delivered you; not from some ethereal undefined danger but from the suffering of hell itself, from the danger of being removed from God. Christ is the conqueror of hell, the true presence of God who has rescued, redeemed, and united you to God eternally. Faith in Christ delivers salvation, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life. This means you have been rescued and united to Christ never to be apart from the mercy, goodness, and love of God.
[1] J.T. Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, “all preachers who deny the eternal punishment of the wicked are not ‘merciful theologians’ (misericordes theologi), but the most cruel of all false prophets, who, instead of warning the sinner against his terrible doom, Ezek. 3,17-19, do all in their power "to drown men in destruction and perdition," 1 Tim. 6,3-5.
[2] Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 350.
[3] Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 434.
.webp?width=36&height=36&name=Russ%20(head%20shot).webp){kind=small}
