The Contrast
Pat Jones / Lead Pastor
I recently had a grandparent, who was lovingly gazing upon their grandchild, say to me, “Isn’t it amazing how you can see that little spirit of rebellion in them?” It’s true. What an amazing contrast embodied in a beautiful package! We want to embrace the lovely and try to ignore the very part that left unaddressed will eventually work against or destroy them.
One of the questions posted on our Worship Center wall out of a recent service asked how a loving God can send anyone to hell? It is a common question that in essence wants to embrace the lovely and ignore the other part. And in framing the question as we tend to do, we miss something vital.
As parents, we love our children deeply. But when choices are made that enslave our children (drugs, alcohol, greed, narcissism) we get angry. The anger is not against them. It is against the effects of the evil choice. And the fact that they have chosen something that is destroying them. We wish we could take the pain and ugliness on ourselves if it would mean they would get free. And that is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. His anguished cry was that of a pure, righteous, loving God taking all our sin on Himself, personally experiencing our “hell” for the sake of providing a way for us to be set free. If we are willing to choose … and we do make a choice.
When I get this, suddenly hell is not an instrument of punishment meted out by a wrath-filled God, but a personally chosen experience of slavery. We can’t understand or experience pure love and grace without the contrast of the ugly, anger-deserving, destructive path that is our choice. The difference is that Jesus personally took our hell on Himself and experienced it so that we would not have to. And that is love at its deepest and purest.
So, when you think of hell, remember it is a choice. And it’s not God’s choice for us. It is our own. And unless we are saying we want a world without the power to choose our own path, we celebrate and are amazed at the reality that God personally suffered “hell” on the cross so that we would not have to.
I recently had a grandparent, who was lovingly gazing upon their grandchild, say to me, “Isn’t it amazing how you can see that little spirit of rebellion in them?” It’s true. What an amazing contrast embodied in a beautiful package! We want to embrace the lovely and try to ignore the very part that left unaddressed will eventually work against or destroy them.
One of the questions posted on our Worship Center wall out of a recent service asked how a loving God can send anyone to hell? It is a common question that in essence wants to embrace the lovely and ignore the other part. And in framing the question as we tend to do, we miss something vital.
As parents, we love our children deeply. But when choices are made that enslave our children (drugs, alcohol, greed, narcissism) we get angry. The anger is not against them. It is against the effects of the evil choice. And the fact that they have chosen something that is destroying them. We wish we could take the pain and ugliness on ourselves if it would mean they would get free. And that is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. His anguished cry was that of a pure, righteous, loving God taking all our sin on Himself, personally experiencing our “hell” for the sake of providing a way for us to be set free. If we are willing to choose … and we do make a choice.
When I get this, suddenly hell is not an instrument of punishment meted out by a wrath-filled God, but a personally chosen experience of slavery. We can’t understand or experience pure love and grace without the contrast of the ugly, anger-deserving, destructive path that is our choice. The difference is that Jesus personally took our hell on Himself and experienced it so that we would not have to. And that is love at its deepest and purest.
So, when you think of hell, remember it is a choice. And it’s not God’s choice for us. It is our own. And unless we are saying we want a world without the power to choose our own path, we celebrate and are amazed at the reality that God personally suffered “hell” on the cross so that we would not have to.