Haunted By Hell

In His Infinite Love, God Sent Help to Rescue Us from the Reality of Hell. Luke 16:19-31

Introduction Until recently, Hell has been a completely accepted theological tenet of Christianity. For generations, hell was never questioned or second-guessed. But today, it seems hell is up for debate and even dismissed by some in Christian circles. So what if Hell is not real? If you eliminate hell, what other options are there? There are two alternatives to hell. Universalism: Simply stated, the doctrine of universalism is that, ultimately, everyone will be saved. There is no need for hell because everyone, including unrepentant sinners, false preachers, and mass murderers. We all get a free ticket, which makes all of this useless and our faith pointless.

The other alternative is Annihilationism. Annihilationism is the teaching that God will "condemn the wicked to extinction, which is the second death." Those who remain lost will simply pass out of existence; they will be no more. The problem is that annihilation would demean both the love of God and the nature of human beings as free moral creatures. It would be as if God said to them, “I will allow you to be free only if you do what I say. If you don’t, then I will snuff out your very existence!” Annihilation is not consistent with an all-loving God to snuff out those who do not do his wishes. And there is nothing in scripture that validates either of these beliefs belief.

Many today still say, “How can you possibly reconcile the concept of judgment and hell with the idea of a loving God? Judgment and hell and loving God just don’t go together.” Many people today find the idea of judgment and hell offensive. What do we say about that? Well, if we get rid of the offensive, if we get rid of the hard, if we get rid of the idea of judgment and hell, you will find you have gutted the entire foundation of the Bible. You will find you have eviscerated many of the Bible's teachings about Jesus' love for you.

Hell is a scary doctrine. One that has haunted humanity for thousands of years. But what if it takes Hell to show us the depth of God's love? Luke 16:19-31

Luke 16:19–31 ESV

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

Scriptural Analysis Some say that this is a parable. However, if it is, this parable is unusual. It is the only parable in which a character is named. Because of the character named “Lazarus," it has been suggested that it is not a parable but a historical account. I am not convinced either way. I believe it very well could be true history because of the name used and the way the narrative unfolds. Jesus used the name Lazarus because his listeners would know exactly who Jesus was referring to. So I do lean toward that this was a story with real people because it has a real feeling to the story.

V19-22 The parable begins by depicting the rich man and his life and then contrasting it with Lazarus and his condition. The rich man is dressed “in purple and fine linen.” Roman law codified who had the right to wear purple. Thus, the original hearers and readers of this parable would understand that the rich man was successful and respected and that he had achieved this with the approval of Roman authorities. He is important. Then there is Lazarus. Between him and the rich man, there is a gate. The gate is another sign of the man’s wealth and importance, as he lives in what today would be a luxury gated house. Lazarus is not only starving and unclean, but dogs are licking him. In Jewish eyes, dogs were not romanticized as “man’s best friend” but were seen as impure, disgusting scavengers. From the point of view of human prestige, wealth, and even religiosity, the rich man is far above Lazarus.

Then, they both die, and things are completely reversed, even in the way Jesus refers to their death. Lazarus died and was “carried away by the angels to be with Abraham,” while the rich man simply “died and was buried.” However, the greatest contrast is in the final outcome of each one’s life: the rich man ends up in Hades, while Lazarus is carried to Abraham. There is a complete reversal of fortunes.

V23-26 This story does not see the wicked as being annihilated but continuing in a terrible conscious and irreversible condition after death. Although some people mistakenly believe that, at best, when they die, they will cease to exist, the fact is that not only will they continue to exist, but they will be able to remember the good things they received on earth, the blessings God poured out upon them, and the patience God showed to them giving them time to turn to Him. This story reveals that one of the most horrendous aspects of hell is their memory. Abraham recalls the life of both Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man recalls the name Lazarus. So, he knew Lazarus and the suffering he endured.

“Between you and us … a great chasm has been fixed …” The old King James says, “My son, between you and us, there is a great gulf fixed." There’s a separation of you from the presence of God, from heaven, and that’s what hell is. To borrow the title of a book by C.S. Lewis, hell is the “Great Divorce.” Hell is an eternal separation from God. Hell is a place of painful solitude. Many people think that hell will be a reunion with old buddies, one big party. There will be no fellowship of any kind in Hell. Your only companion will be your memory of rejecting God. Hell is a place of seclusion from everyone, including God. The one principle of Hell is "I am on my own!" While we may have had fleeting moments of feeling separated from God, those were false feelings. Here on earth, we have yet to experience what it means to be anywhere where God wasn't present. The rich man describes the painful experience of this eternal separation.

V27-31 In verses 29–31, the parable is connected with the theme that Jesus discussed just before in Luke: the authority and guidance of the Law and the Prophets. The rich man asks for comfort for himself and a warning for his brothers, and he is denied both. Instead, the living must trust the Scriptures. Some will not believe even after a resurrection. Luke’s early readers would immediately realize (as we do) that the one saying this, Jesus, was one who would indeed return from the dead. The main obstacle to faith is not a lack of proof; it is an excess of self.

If the rich man’s five brothers would give attention to God’s Word, they would need nothing else. But the rich man disagreed: “No, Father Abraham, if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent” (v. 30). The rich man’s insistence that if someone returned from the dead, his brothers would repent was a subtle way of excusing himself. He implicitly argued that he would have repented if a special messenger from the dead had come to him. He was saying that Moses and the Prophets, God’s Word, were not enough.

However, Jesus is saying, “Even if someone rises from the dead, including me,” many will still not believe. In other words, there is no miracle capable of leading to faith and obedience when one has focused more on oneself than on one's relationship with God. The rich man's words still echo today: "The Bible is not enough. The Resurrection is not enough. We need special signs and wonders. We need a new Word. Then we will believe.” How arrogant we humans are, daring to tell God what he must do if we are to believe. If God would just send ambassadors from the other side, great multitudes would believe. Would they, though? Jesus' words and His proven resurrection shout a resounding no! TODAY'S KEY TRUTH In His Infinite Love, God Sent Help to Rescue Us from the Reality of Hell. Application The Bible teaches that Hell is an actual place. Hell is not just the grave or a mythical term to depict suffering or a temporary state during the journey of the soul called "purgatory." It is an actual existing place. The existence of hell has been defended by arguments both from Scripture and from human reason. In fact, Hell is why Jesus left Heaven. If there is no Hell, why did Jesus come? What was He saving us from if there is no eternal consequence of our sins? Jesus came and referred to Hell as a real and literal place. This story points to the reality of hell.

Again, Jesus using the name Lazarus has an important message. The name “Lazarus” means “God helps,” and this story shows that this is true. If you look at all of the rest of Jesus’ parables, no one has a proper name assigned to them except this poor man, who is named Lazarus. If the one character would have a name, surely if Jesus uses that approach, the other character should have a name, but he doesn’t. There’s a named character, Lazarus, and a nameless character, the rich man. The contrast is deliberate. What does it mean?

Verse 25: “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things …” “You already had them. Your highest, your best things, the things that you built your life and identity on … you had them.” What is your highest good? What is the thing you really live for? What is the thing that is your ultimate value? What is that which gives meaning to your life? What is it that gives you a sense of who you are? Whatever your best thing, the highest thing, the ultimate value is, that’s what gives you an identity. This man had his good things. It’s past tense. Status and wealth were the basis for identity. Now that the status and wealth are gone, there is no him left. He was a rich man or nothing. See? He has no identity. It’s gone. He's nameless because when you take away everything, like wealth and status, he has no identity. Hell is the place where everything is taken away, including who you think you are.

Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish philosopher, wrote a book called Sickness Unto Death. In that book, he wrestles with the definition of sin, and he defines sin as building your identity on anything but God. This might be the best definition of sin. Sin is building your identity on anything besides God, turning other things into ultimate things. The human heart cries out, “I don’t want to depend on you, God. I don’t want to have to rely on you every second. I don’t want to have to cling to your mercy and grace all the time. Look at me. Look at how good I am. I'm good enough, and I can take care of myself.” Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they were saying to Jesus, “Leave me alone. I don’t want to have to feel that I have to depend on you completely, and I don’t want you to say you can just do anything in my life. I don’t want to have to be unconditionally obedient to you and unconditionally dependent on you.” And today, people are still saying, “Leave me alone.” That’s what sin is. Sin is saying, “My identity is built on me. God, leave me alone.” If sin is saying, “Leave me alone,” Hell is saying, “Okay.” That’s what God is doing. Separation, you see, this chasm is something we’ve been trying to jump over all of our lives. We’ve been trying to get away from God.  Hell is nothing more but God saying to the deepest recess of your heart, “Thy will be done. You want me out of your life? You want me to leave you alone and for you to be on your own? Then okay.”

C.S. Lewis has this one amazing line in his book The Problem of Pain. In his chapter on hell, he says, “Hell is the greatest monument in the history of the world to human freedom.” Lewis goes on to say, “What do you want God to do? Forgive them? But they don’t want to be forgiven. What do you want him to do? Leave them alone? Alas,” says Lewis, “that’s exactly what he’s going to do.”

Our self-centered hearts say, “We don’t want to go near God. We don’t want to be absolutely dependent on him. We don’t want to be absolutely obedient to him because then we’ll lose our independence.” And your heart is right. But what’s wrong is your heart believes independence equals freedom, and that’s not true. Yes, you lose your independence when you surrender to God, but that’s when you find true freedom. Freedom from being consumed with yourself, freedom from sin and death, and freedom from Hell.

In His Infinite Love, God Sent Help to Rescue Us from the Reality of Hell. Conclusion Hell is our freely chosen outcome based on choosing ourselves over God. It’s not a question of God ‘sending’ us to hell. In each of our heart, something is growing that will lead to hell unless our heart is transformed. So, what will change the fundamental structures of our hearts? Love. Radical love. Radical, unconditional love is the only thing that will take our mistrustful, in denial, conniving little hearts and shock them into a whole new way of living and being. Love. Where will we get that kind of love that changes our hearts?

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones used an illustration to show us. Imagine a friend of mine comes to see me and says, ‘Hey, I was at your house the other day, and a bill came due. You weren’t there, so I paid it.’ ” David Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “Well, how should I respond? The answer is I have no idea how to respond until I know how big that bill was. Was it just postage due, and he paid less than a dollar? You would say, ‘Well, thank you.’ ” But what if it was ten years of back taxes and fines? What if it was an enormous debt? Lloyd-Jones says, “Until I know how much he paid, I don’t know whether to shake his hand or fall down on the ground and kiss his feet.” Unless you believe in hell, you will never know how much Jesus loved you when he went to the cross to pay your debt. You will never know how much he values you. Your heart will never know unless you believe in hell. If somebody says to me, "I believe in a God of love, but I don’t believe in hell," that's actually contrary to logic and the truth. It's Hell that shows the great love of God. Hell is real, and God's great love came because he wanted to rescue you.

In His Infinite Love, God Sent Help to Rescue Us from the Reality of Hell.

Why did Jesus Christ speak more about hell than anybody else in the Bible put together? Because on the cross, he took hell for us as He said some of his final words,  “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  If I want to be transformed, if I want to sense God's love, if I want to love and to praise,  if I want to be able to sing, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,” I have to believe in hell.

God doesn't send anyone to hell. We are on our way because we embrace self and reject God. Hell is the justifiable conclusion to our self-centered, self-absorbed, selfish declaration that I don't need God and I'm good enough on my own. Yet in his infinite, undeserved, grace-filled love, God sent a rescuer. His name is Jesus.

In His Infinite Love, God Sent Help to Rescue Us from the Reality of Hell.

How do people end up in Hell? Simply put, by choosing to reject Jesus and the forgiveness He freely gives. Hell is a choice we make when we say, "I am enough. My identity is built on me. I want to be on my own." Only by understanding the logic and reality of hell can we grasp the immensity of God’s love. God’s love took his son to the cross for our sake. Jesus died to offer everyone an option other than Hell. The option is Heaven. This is a costly love, a bloody love that has no parallel in any of the world’s religions. Although some other religions threaten hell, none offer the sure deliverance from it that Christianity offers through the sacrificial love of Jesus. Although Hell is real, you don’t have to go! God loved you enough to send help. His name is Jesus.

In His Infinite Love, God Sent Help to Rescue Us from the Reality of Hell.