Address Hell Christologically
Perhaps most importantly of all, there is an urgent need for us to approach this truth Christologically, that is, in conscious relation to the doctrine of Christ. I mean that in at least two ways. First, we need to stress that hell is an unavoidably dominical doctrine. We have learned it from the lips of Jesus. No one is more responsible for laying out the main lines of the teaching which is so despised in our day regarding hell than is our Lord himself. He addressed the subject more than anyone else, and gave it more attention in the scope of his ministry than many other important themes. And its no wonder he spoke of it so often, in deadly earnest. He created it, and he alone of redeemed humanity has experienced its torment. So, in the final analysis, we believe in hell, because we believe-and believe in-Jesus. That means that if someone wants to take issue with hell, their argument is not with the preacher but with the Creator-Savior. That’s not a quarrel one ought to be anxious to join.
Second, our preaching on hell must be Christological in the sense that it must be set in the context of the cross. To many, hell poses a problem for theodicy. Just as some suggest that the problem of evil calls into question either the goodness or existence of the sovereign God, so also hell is trucked out as the ultimate trump card against the love and mercy and grace of the Christian God. How can you believe, they ask, in a God who sends people to hell? Well, the answer is – look at the cross, and I’ll give you a bigger problem to think about. Christ’s dereliction and abandonment and forsakeness on the cross is a far greater philosophical-theological problem than hell.
Why do I say this? Because at the cross, the wrath of God is striking out at the one place, the one person, in the universe that it has no right to strike – the incarnate and sinlessly perfect Son of God. It is a far greater injustice than we can conceive. No plight was ever less merited. Hell, on the other hand, is deserved. It makes perfect sense. Its logic is inexorable. Those who forgo God in this life, forgo him also in the next. Sheer justice, even in a certain way inadvertently chosen and self-imposed. Hell is the ultimate quid pro quo – the eternal reward of all Pelagians.
But the cross, now there’s a labyrinth. When we contemplate the cross adequately we have to account, not only for its brutality, but also for its injustice, in light of the Son’s complete moral perfection and his exceeding preciousness to the Father. There are no intrinsic grounds for judgment against him. Considered in this context, the cross seems to contradict and call into question the very justice of God. And yet the central message of the Pauline Gospel is that this plan, which seemed at first to undercut the justice of God, was in fact the divine strategy to establish the justice of God in the dispensation of his grace. How can this be? Because though there were no intrinsic grounds for Christ’s condemnation yet there were, by God’s grace, extrinsic grounds located in his federal union with his people. Because of this covenantal relation he was rendered liable and vulnerable to the sin and punishment of all his sheep in his vicarious substitution. Thus the cross is redeemed from injustice and, indeed, is the divine instrument to reveal “the righteousness of God” (Romans 1:17).
The puzzles of hell, deep as they are, can’t compete with the puzzle of grace. Hell is the subconscious fear of humanity, because we inherently know we deserve it, even though we grind our teeth at God about it (as do the denizens of gehenna). But grace, grace is counter-intuitive. It’s the hardest thing to believe in the world.
Now we are perfectly familiar with the oft-quoted counsel of Spurgeon that one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar. But this should not be advanced as a justification for ignoring the truth of hell in our preaching. Spurgeon certainly didn’t. No, hell is a reality that puts heaven-by-grace in bold relief. It says to the sinner via special revelation what he knows via General Revelation and the imago Dei – one day his soul will be required, there will be a reckoning, God’s justice will be done, he will merit damnation. Then, alongside this truth of hell, the Gospel comes and says: yes the justice of God will be done-but one way or another. One may stand before the tribunal in one’s own goodness or dressed in Christ’s. One can receive the wages he has earned or receive the wages Christ has earned. The difference is final and eternal.
This post originally appeared at Reformation21 in March of 2011.
