December 25

December 25 Revelation 16
Are the judgments of the Lamb righteous? Of course they are righteous! One might respond that one is taking the word of God too literally to say that every judgment of the Lamb is taking the passage too literal. What is to keep me from saying that every passage that does not satisfy me emotionally is not to be taken literally?
I was talking with my father-in-law. He asked me, “You don’t believe that God really sends people to hell to burn forever?” I nodded my head indicating that I do believe that God sends people to hell to burn forever. He responded, “I think that you take the Bible too literally.” The implication of his comment is that such a judgment is unrighteous. Now I did not argue the point with him. I believe that if someone does not want to believe the word of God, then no logical argument, no matter how logical, will be useless. Believing God is mostly an act of the will not of the intellect. It is a spiritual thing not intellectual; although, the intellect does play into it. If one wants to believe, then the intellectual questions must be addressed, for God does not ask us to shelve our intellects. He expects us to love Him with all of our minds. So for those who choose to love God, the intellect must be addressed as much as possible. But for those who choose not to love God, it does not matter how logical your argument, the intellect is never satisfied.
I suppose that if the book of Revelation were the only place in the Bible that talked about eternal flames of hell, then my father-in-law would have a good point. Revelation is a book of imagery. Often times one wonders whether the images of the Revelation are be taken literally or whether to ask what does the image mean and then conclude that the meaning behind the image is literal. But the references to eternal judgment are not found only in the book of Revelation. Jesus, Himself, warns against doing something that would cause one to, “Go into hell into the fire that shall never be quenched—where, ‘Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” (Mark 9:42-48; Matthew 5:29,30; 18:8,9) If this does not refer to an eternal punishment, then what does is mean?
What does it mean that God is eternal? Part of the meaning is that time is part of His creation, which necessarily means that He exists outside of time. He sees and knows all things at once. For Him, everything could be considered one eternal now. If sin is committed, then it is committed against an eternal God. That sin is eternally before Him. If He is just, then His justice must eternally judge a sin that is eternally before Him. This He did in the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. If one refuses to receive the Lamb’s eternal payment for one’s sin, then that refusal is eternally before God. The payment that the Lamb made is applied only to those persons who receive Him. It would be unjust of God to not eternally punish those persons who refuse to receive Him. That is why Jesus says, “He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
His judgments are indeed righteous and true. It is emotionally painful for us to think of any one being tortured for eternity. Perhaps that is because we really do not understand righteousness and justice and why the unrighteous cling to their decisions when pardon is offered. He is righteous in all of His judgments. Eternal sin demands eternal justice. The Lamb gives both eternal mercy and eternal justice. That is part of His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John