Introduction
To begin with let me say that the subject of this presentation is not what I would call a theologically “fun” topic. What might fall under this adjective? Perhaps something like one’s view of the millennium. There we’re talking about which eschatological interpretation of the “thousand years,” appearing six times in Revelation 20:2-7, best fits the biblical data. This subject has a weight of solemnity behind it that most other theological teachings do not possess to the same degree. The ramifications of where one stands on this particular issue can often change the countenance of many a hearer; it’s hard not to allow some emotion and subjectivity to creep into the conversation somewhere along the line. It’s even been said of Christians that “your God is my devil,” and this sentiment is, in large part, most often due to the Bible’s teaching on the eternality of the punishment of the unrighteous in hell. It has been a major factor in many declarations of those who openly reject Christianity. In saying this, such detractors are often implying that they have taken the moral high ground: “If your God is so petty as to infinitely punish someone for a finite offense (something that I could never see myself doing), then that’s not someone I would be happy worshiping. Christianity? No, thank you.”
The older I get, the less likely my thirty-year dream of teaching theology at the graduate level becomes. I mention this, not to elicit sympathy, but to help explain my subject choice for this presentation. Not every theological mystery has been exhaustively combed through and those in which a bit of new light can be shone should be carefully selected, commensurate with the opportunities remaining to explicate those ideas. In my last presentation I discussed the theological issue of the extent of Christ’s atonement and landed on the conclusion that Christ died to pay for the sins of all people, believers and unbelievers alike. The topic for this paper not only gives me the opportunity to address a pivotal subject for thoughtful unbelievers, but also buttresses my last presentation as well. Theology really is like a spider’s web in that pulling on one strand reverberates across the entire edifice, its organic nature thereby attesting to the veracity of the discipline itself. Were the Bible merely a man-made construct (even of a single genius), the fragility of its doctrinal cohesiveness would have been exposed long before now. Instead, we are finding new pathways of interdependencies between doctrinal studies that express the unity of God’s multifaceted Word.
Problems for Each Side Regarding the Extent of the Atonement
In my last paper I covered the strengths and weaknesses of the two theological positions regarding the extent of Christ’s atonement. The charts I flash up on the presentation will hopefully serve as a reminder of that discussion. The Scriptures listed were not meant to be exhaustive, but merely representative of those passages which support the points being made. In my “Summary of Main Issues” I wrote:
The view of particular atonement is that Christ died only for His elect. The largest problem with this view are the plethora of passages that speak of the atonement in universal terms and the explicit Scriptures that point to the idea that Christ died even for some who will not believe, such as 1 Tim 4:10 (“For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe”) or Heb 10:29 (“How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”).
The view of universal atonement is that Christ died for all humanity. The largest problem with this view is the idea that if Christ really died and took the punishment for all humanity, then how is it that all humanity is not ultimately saved? Wouldn’t it be unjust of God to accept Christ’s sacrifice as the payment for the sins of all humanity, including the non-elect, only to require payment for the sins of the unbelieving non-elect again on the day of judgment? If Christ’s work on the cross has truly ransomed all humanity from divine judgment, propitiated the just wrath of God against sin, and reconciled ungodly sinners to a holy Father, how is it that the non-elect are again brought under judgment on the last day?[1]
An Unorthodox Solution
The solution I advocated to this dilemma is that man is under a dual condemnation, being sinners by nature and by choice. Those sins which we have committed (past, present, and future) have all been paid for by Christ on the cross. This has left God free to offer reconciliation—nay, plead for reconciliation through His ambassadors (cp. 2 Cor 5:17-21)—in order that we, by His grace through faith, may become His adopted children and receive the inheritance of Christ’s righteousness (justification) and the down payment our future inheritance, His Holy Spirit, resulting in immediate regeneration and increasing sanctification.
To be very clear… our sins are no longer an obstacle which prevents God from extending the right hand of fellowship. In fact, it was on this very basis, the sacrifice of Christ, that God in the Old Testament was able to pass “over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:25-26). The Old Testament sacrificial system consisted of types that covered the sins of God’s people in anticipation of the One who was called, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). In the gospels Jesus said multiple times, “Your sins are forgiven.” This did not require an exercise of His divine omniscience first to know whether or not such a person was of the elect. He simply knew that every person whom He said this to (in fact every man, woman, and child everywhere) would be one for whose sins He would die for.
So if Christ died for all sins, why aren’t all people saved in the end? What unbelievers are still on the hook for in the final judgment is whether or not they are believing children of God, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). How does one accomplish this? In one sense they don’t: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). One’s will power is not enough to accomplish the miracle of regeneration, this is a work of God alone. What I mean is that one may start out searching with all their heart for what they know will benefit them beyond their wildest dreams: eternal life with God; but if they truly ever attain it, it will not be with a sense of having conquered a great goal. It will, instead, be accompanied by a joyful realization of having been conquered—overwhelmed even—by the love of One who sought you long before you were ever interested in the journey. All of the great aspirations you had for yourself (just one of which was securing your own eternal retirement plan by your intelligence and hard work) will have vanished like the morning fog… replaced with a clearer vision of what life is truly about.[2] “And [Christ] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor 5:15).
The Scriptures say, “Whoever believes in [Christ] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God… Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 3:18; 5:24-25). Thus, it’s not what you have done that will determine your eternal destiny… it’s who you are (the works are reviewed to prove that). And who you are… if the divine transformation is ever to occur… begins with Who you believe. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36). That God may forgive sins without forgiving the sinner seems to be the only viable explanation for Numbers 14:19-23.
What Occurred at the Fall
At this point we must briefly discuss the work of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of mankind in general, and unbelievers in particular. At the time Adam and Eve were originally created, they were perfect in every way and God declared all creation to be “very good” (Gen 1:31). When Adam sinned during the fall by not immediately soliciting God for help in the disobedience of Eve (attained through Satan’s deception) and, instead, participating in it, two things occurred: (1) his righteous legal status and the federal impact it had (since he was the representative head of mankind) was forfeited; (2) his righteous experiential nature and the realist impact it had (since he was the ontological head of mankind) was forfeited. This occurred in accordance with God’s warning that “in the day that you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). This spiritual death was a natural consequence and resulted in mankind becoming sinners by nature and by choice.
We are sinners by choice not only as a result of personal decisions we have made to sin as individuals, but also due to the sin of Adam who, as our representative head, had chosen to declare war against God by siding with the kingdom of darkness (cp. Col 1:13) in embracing unbelief. Romans 5:12 states, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” As our President can dictate for the entire country who our international enemies are, so Adam did similarly for the world of mankind during the fall. In effect, he and his own would choose to be autonomous (literally, “self-law”) in their hearts, rather than abiders of divine law. This sinful choice, made on our behalf by our federal head, is imputed to us.[3] It is this half of the equation, the imputed sin of Adam and our own personal sins, that Christ’s death on the cross has freed us from. However, while the objective debt has been paid and reconciliation to God is now freely offered, the Giver and the gift must still be embraced in faith by sinners in order to complete the transaction. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6).
We are also sinners by nature, for at the fall Adam embraced a paradigm which dethroned God from his heart and enthroned self instead (cp. 2 Cor 5:15). As our ontological head his actions had a spiritual-physiological effect for his progeny, for the Holy Spirit cannot cohabit with sin in the unregenerate heart of man (cp. 2 Cor 5:16 with 1 Cor 6:19). Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit did not totally desert mankind. Instead of working from the inside of man, however, He was forced to work from the outside of man. Like a scientist working with radioactive materials behind a thick transparent wall, He uses the equivalent of clumsy, robotic arms, remotely controlled from a distance, to perform his surgery upon our souls. This outside-working disadvantage would eventually be overcome, but only for believers under the New Covenant age for whom Christ promised that He who was “with” us, would be “in” us (cp. John 14:17 with Ezek 36:25-27). This is what is still owed to God by unbelievers at the last judgment. In my previous presentation I included the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt 18:21-35). Remember how it ends? “Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Thus, the servant was seemingly placed in double jeopardy (the very thing that particularists say a just God cannot do) even though he had believed and accepted the pardon from his master (the very thing that generalists say is lacking among unbelievers who will suffer the last judgment). The key here is to note that there is no real double jeopardy for the debt of what the servant owed for his deeds had truly been forgiven. Further, the belief that was exercised in accepting the pardon was not saving faith for it had no transformative power, as the master explained (“And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”). What the master yet required was a servant with transformed heart: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” This is the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29-31) and it can only happen by God’s grace through faith (Eph 2:8-10).
The Nature of the Holy Spirit’s Work
Much is said in the Bible about what the Holy Spirit actually accomplishes within believers, but what is it that the Holy Spirit actually does for unbelievers? The answer can be determined not only from those verses in which the Spirit explicitly deals with unbelievers, but also from those verses in which the Spirit is the causal agent for some dynamic within believers and there are no competing causal factors for the same effect which can be observed amongst humans in general. In the interest of available time and space, we will fast-forward to our conclusions which allows us to bucket the Spirit’s ministry to mankind as a whole into four broad categories: (1) the moral predilections of the conscience (Rom 2:14-15 with 9:1), (2) the emotional satisfactions of the soul (1 Sam 16:14 ff; 19:20 ff), (3) the cognitive abilities of the mind (Exod 35:31), and (4) the physical capabilities of the body (Judg 15:14, cp. Ps 104:30; Job 34:14-15). To be sure, the Scriptures identify additional blessings that are provided to believers, but the acknowledgment of God’s common grace in at least these four categories will serve us well.
In each case the Holy Spirit is associated with the positive increase in those capacities which are viewed to be beneficial. This is a very important point because what God does on behalf of sinners and saints alike is identical in the realm of common grace. In Acts 14:15-17 Paul declares, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Matt 5:44-45 states, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Acts 17:24-28 tells us, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”
A consequence of the fact that all good things that we commonly enjoy are sustained by God is that He does not need to exercise intentional malice when He wishes to teach the folly of wickedness. He merely has to withdraw His grace of support and the world will come crashing down under its own weight. Colossians 1:17 tells us, “[Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3a states, “[Christ] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” This explains how God may sometimes judge without being culpable of vindictiveness. The enemy who declares war against the United States while launching missiles produced from our factories should not wonder why the next shipment of arms from our shores has not arrived. The Egyptians who pursued Moses and the Israelites through the Red Sea should not have assumed that the grace given to God’s people would be extended to them as well. Similarly, it would appear that the Holy Spirit, who gave wisdom and skill to superior craftsmen (Exod 35:31 ff), needed only to withdraw His hand of grace from Nebuchadnezzar to reduce him to an unreasoning, grass-grazing animal (Dan 4:28-37), until humility was learned.
The Bible tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love (agapē), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:22-23). Earlier we quoted from Matt 5:44-45, but the very next verse is also revealing: “For if you love (agapēsēte) those who love (agapōntas) you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” Evidently, even unbelieving tax collectors could obey the command to love, as long as a mutually beneficial arrangement was in place. My point here is that there seems to be evidence throughout the Scriptures that even the morality that unbelievers express towards one another ultimately results from the work of the Holy Spirit. This would explain why so many theologians identify the restraining force that is taken out of the way (before the unveiling of the antichrist in the last days) to be the Holy Spirit (2 Thess 2:6-7). One passage that seems to be more direct on this point is 1 Tim 3:2-5a: “For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” It’s been said that there’s a morality or honor code even among thieves. If such is a form of godliness, it’s fair to ask, what is the power behind it, which they’ve denied? Perhaps the power behind their “form of godliness” is God.
Justifications for Hell
The Bible tells us that the punishment of the wicked is final and eternal. Matt 25:41, for example, states, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” While no Christian theologian revels in the idea of eternal punishment, it is clearly taught in the Bible and the God who has proved Himself to be real in our lives has also proved Himself to be exceedingly loving. Thus, we know Him to be good even as we struggle to understand some of the harder aspects of theology. 2 Pet 3:9 tells us that the Lord desires that none should perish. Millard Erickson wrestles with this issue when he states:
What kind of God is it who is not satisfied by a finite punishment but makes humans suffer for ever and ever? This seems to be beyond the demands of justice; it appears to involve a tremendous degree of vindictiveness on the part of God. The punishment seems to be out of all proportion to the sin, for presumably, all sins are finite acts against God. How does one square belief in a good, just, and loving God with eternal punishment? The question must not be dismissed lightly, for it concerns the very essence of God’s nature.[4]
The only reasonable explanation I’ve heard over the years as to how God may be vindicated for sentencing finite human beings to an everlasting punishment is that every affront to God, though limited in quantity and quality, is, nevertheless, an affront to an infinite being. This makes the sin itself infinite in magnitude and, therefore, worthy of an everlasting punishment. There are problems with appealing to the use of infinite quantities, however. William Lane Craig points this out for us:
Imagine I had an infinite number of marbles in my possession, and that I wanted to give you some. In fact, suppose I wanted to give you an infinite number of marbles. One way I could do that would be to give you the entire pile of marbles. In that case I would have zero marbles left for myself.
However, another way to do it would be to give you all the odd numbered marbles. Then I would still have an infinity left over for myself, and you would have an infinity too. You’d have just as many as I would—and, in fact, each of us would have just as many as I originally had before we divided into odd and even! Or another approach would be for me to give you all of the marbles numbered four and higher. That way, you would have an infinity of marbles, but I would have only three marbles left.
What these illustrations demonstrate is that the notion of an actual infinite number of things leads to contradictory results. In the first case in which I gave you all the marbles, infinity minus infinity is zero; in the second case in which I gave you all the odd-numbered marbles, infinity minus infinity is infinity; and in the third case in which I gave you all the marbles numbered four and greater, infinity minus infinity is three. In each case, we have subtracted the identical number from the identical number, but we have come up with non-identical results.
For that reason, mathematicians are forbidden from doing subtraction and division in transfinite arithmetic, because this would lead to contradictions. You see, the idea of an actual infinite is just conceptual; it exists only in our minds. Working within certain rules, mathematicians can deal with infinite quantities and infinite numbers in the conceptual realm. However—and here’s the point—it’s not descriptive of what can happen in the real world.[5]
So how does this matter in our discussion of eternal punishment? What does every person created in God’s image owe Him? One could say eternal righteousness (depending on how you define your terms) and not get dismissed from the seminary classroom. Accepting this answer, take a look at Ezekiel 18:21-24:
21But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. 23Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? 24But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
If indeed a small, unforgiven sin is worthy of everlasting torment because it was performed against in infinite God, thereby making the offense infinite, then the same should apply to a small, righteous act as well. In other words it, too, should be expanded to an infinite degree. In such a case the creature’s initial obligation of righteousness to the Creator is already complete and nothing further is owed. But that would contradict verse 24b in which “none of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered.” The point here is that importing the idea of God’s infinite being as a means of justifying an everlasting punishment is very tricky.
The other objection to the standard explanation for everlasting punishment remains, i.e. it makes God seem merciless and a bit petty. When a janitor becomes negligent and misses emptying the CEO’s office trash can, it would seem to be overkill for the CEO to fire the janitor. One could try to make a case that the indiscretions or even attacks that one person can perform against an infinite God should seem trivial compared to the larger matters of running the whole universe, right?
The Unpardonable Sin
On this last point of personal attacks upon God, Scripture may actually have something to say about this. Matt 12:31-37 tells us:
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
Space prohibits me from going into much detail, but please note the following: (1) only the blasphemy against the Spirit will be held against sinners, (2) Christ the Judge, is willing to forgive personal attacks upon His being (remember that the thief on the cross started out as a mocker and Peter denied Christ multiple times), and (3) one’s fruit will be used to tell whether one is a good tree or a bad tree on the day of judgment. What is the blasphemy against the Spirit? I would say that the blasphemy of the Spirit is resisting the Holy Spirit’s witness to one’s heart regarding the truth of God in Christ. Since it is the only sin which will not be forgiven in the day of judgment, it must be reconciled with John 5:24 which states, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” This light of truth may be as bright as a full gospel presentation or it may be as dim as the vague notion that there must be a God who made me, but the point is that as a person responds favorably to the light of general revelation or special revelation that God gives to him or her, He promises to give them more light until they either come to faith in Christ (as did the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 or Cornelius in Acts 10) or until they reject the truth of God (as in Rom 1 or Acts 7, “You always resist the Holy Spirit” v. 51). Jer 29:13 states, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
The Parable of the Talents
As I mentioned earlier, to me the answer to this question of how God can be vindicated for sentencing some to an everlasting destiny away from His presence and the glory of His might (2 Thess 1:9) seems to be connected to the whole question of the extent of Christ’s atonement. If unbelievers are not judged according to what they did (for Christ paid the price for all mankind’s sins… past, present, and future), then those who do not believe must then be judged according to who they are, i.e. their identity. There just aren’t any other options. Fortunately, the Scriptures we’ve looked at seem to support this.
So let’s get real for a minute. We all know some people in life who aren’t perfect, but they seem decent enough. In fact, they may be our best friends… college buddies or hometown neighbors whom we’ve hung out with for decades. They make us laugh, they make us cry, they’re fun to be around, and they’re just “good folk”… but they don’t believe. God is smarter than we are. After the first millisecond in hell, these people will have learned their lesson, right? How can we be happy while these suffer? Perhaps Matt 25:14-30, the parable of the talents, can offer up a clue.
14“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
I’d like to propose that the talents that are distributed are symbolic of the Holy Spirit and His spiritual gifts and fruit. Of all the gifts that God provides to His children, which is most valuable? Luke 11:13 states, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” John 7:37-39 tells us, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
While the Holy Spirit ministers in His own way to each person in life, it is with believers that He is most intimate and personal. Every great thing that Jesus or any believer has ever accomplished in their lifetime was done in the power of the Spirit. We, too, are capable of accomplishing great things for God. But we must be disciplined as well, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). We are to use not only our own talents (pun intended), but also our testimony, our treasure, and our time (among other resources) to serve God to the fullest. And if the talents which the master had distributed to the servants were symbolic of the Holy Spirit and His resources, then what of the unfaithful servant? “But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (v. 29). Of all the illustrations of what this might look like, the one that most captures my imagination is the picture of King Nebuchadnezzar, stripped of the majestic attire that should have been his and chewing on grass, bereft of reason. I think the way this works out from the perspective of believers who are concerned for family and friends who die without Christ is that all the good we saw in these people while on earth was really a direct result of the grace of God in their lives. Were we to look upon them in their final state, stripped of the Holy Spirit and therefore without His redeeming gifts and fruit, we would no longer even recognize them. What we loved about them was the image of God we saw in them. What is left can, at best, only be pitied. We need not worry about seeing the face of a friend in torment. The twisted visage that is left would rend you in half if it could; and there, but for the grace of God, go we.
From the perspective of the unbeliever, the message is clear. This life is the single chance you get. Don’t squander it on “broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:13); choose life, choose God. He is gracious and merciful, compassionate and kind, but He is also just. Hell is eternal not, because God is sadistic, but because even God’s patience comes to an end. Like the unforgiving servant, you cannot pay your debt in hell. Like the child who asks his father for money, so that he might buy him a father’s day gift, we are utterly dependent upon the Creator for anything resembling currency. Feel a prompting to learn more of the Savior? Cash it in now while repentance is still available to you. Spend it on God while there is time. Leverage those talents and you may, by God’s grace, find satisfaction (Ps 16:11).
Conclusion
To help my children understand these concepts as they were growing up, I changed the imagery a bit. Perhaps this may help to drive home certain aspects. In a sense we all start out as caterpillars in life: slightly cute, pudgy, weak, slinking things with a sinful, self-centered nature. Some of us will respond in time to effectual call of the Savior’s gospel. These caterpillars will metamorphose into beautiful butterflies at the end of their life in heaven. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Other caterpillars never get around to investigating the claims of Christ. They keep pushing it out of their minds, though the Spirit tries hard to convict them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). When they die, they go to Hades and grow to become fully mature vipers… longer, stronger, meaner, and with poisonous fangs. What they were on the inside, they became on the outside. Finally, the day comes along when God sets up His heavenly kingdom here on earth. The butterflies get new bodies and become children so they can dance and play. But the vipers are thrown into a deep snake pit. When asked about them, God explained, “These are those creatures who must never be let out, for they can no longer fit into a cocoon and were they free they attach the children.” Instead, they serve as an example of what might have been you, were it not for the grace of God in Christ.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chafer, Lewis Sperry and John Walvoord. Major Bible Themes. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974.
Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.
Evans, C. Stephen and R. Zachary Manis. Philosophy of Religion: Thinking About Faith. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994.
Pentecost, Dwight. Things Which Become Sound Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965.
Ryrie, Charles. Understanding Bible Doctrine. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1983.
Strobel, Lee. The Case for a Creator. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.
[1] Kevin Ching, “The Extent of Christ’s Atonement.” Online: https://courses.unwsp.edu/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=282186 (Accessed: 18 July 2014). Scripture quotations throughout this paper are from the English Standard Version unless indicated otherwise.
[2] My best effort at articulating this idea reveals the influence of my godly, former pastor, John Piper: “The chief end of every being is to glorify God forever by delighting in Him and by pursuing His approval and likeness in noble friendships and heroic service.”
[3] Feeling rebellious? Buck the system and fall in love with Jesus!
[4] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 1137.
[5] Lee Strobel, The Case for the Creator (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 103.
ForWord Discoveries 