Heaven And Hell

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

PERHAPS ONE OF THE most culturally controversial issues Jesus spoke about was hell. Hell, according to Jesus, is a place of conscious torment and utter darkness.^a Elsewhere in the New Testament, hell is described as a place of never-ending destruction where people are separated from the presence of the Lord and the power of his might.^b

Thankfully, Jesus spoke just as clearly about heaven. He proclaimed about himself, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”^c Indeed, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in [me] should not perish but have eternal life.”^d We find comfort in the passages where Jesus promises his disciples that he is preparing a place for them,^e a place where one day all who believe in him will dwell with God in “a new heaven and a new earth,” where God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”^f Over and over again, Jesus promised everlasting joy and eternal life to all who turn from themselves and their sin to trust in him.

True belief in both heaven and hell radically changes the way we live on earth. We are encouraged by the hope of heaven, and we are compelled by the horror of hell. We know that this world is not all that exists. We know that every person on the planet is here for only a brief moment, and an eternity lies ahead of us all—an eternity filled with either ever-increasing delight or never-ending damnation.

So Jesus’ words make sense: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”^g If you and I know and believe that Jesus came to save us—from hell and for heaven—then we have no choice but to spend our lives on earth making that salvation known. If the people sitting next to us at a coffee shop, studying next to us in the library, working next to us in the office, or living next to us in our neighborhoods may be on a road that leads to everlasting suffering, then we must tell them about the Savior who leads to eternal life and everlasting satisfaction. Anything less makes no sense, according to what we believe.

Pray that God would fill you with hope as you anticipate being with Christ in heaven. Ask him to give you an urgency to share the gospel in light of the reality of hell.