Believing Once Again⤒🔗

In this article, the emphasis is placed on the maintenance of the holy justice of God. We will also investigate whether hell truly is a place where God is absent and whether evil can proceed there in an unhindered manner.

How does God’s love tolerate a hell? Is it consonant with eternal fire, eternal weeping, eternal remorse? Is that not a defeat for God’s love, if hell does exist? How can he allow the eternal existence of a place where he has no influence? Is it just and merciful to condemn people on the basis of this one life? Could this short life between cradle and grave truly be the determinant for a never-ending eternity? You cannot redo it; you will never receive another chance. Does this not clash with the concept of God’s love? Is this not incompatible with his justice?

Love and Justice←⤒🔗

With “justice” we conjure a stern countenance: an agreement is an agreement. The rules must be maintained consistently. The law must be strictly enforced. With “mercy” we usually see a friendly face, full of love, warmth, and moved with compassion. The human heart is inclined to make contradistinctions between the one and the other. But God does not have two faces. He is not two-faced; there is no contradiction in God.

In the Bible, there is no conflict between the love and the justice of God: “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10). His justice can be retribution when he executes vengeance to restore the right (Jeremiah 51:56; Romans 2:8). He can do more in his grace, but not less than what is just (Matthew 22:13). His justice is permeated with love, and his love is totally just. That goes beyond our understanding, and can go against our feelings of justice, but that does not make it any less true. It is precisely in this that God is holy, unique and incomparable.

If God would not be consistent in his justice, then his love would also become less intense! If God’s love would condone evil, then his love would silence his righteousness, as it were. That is unworthy of God. That makes love cheap. God has shown his love in a manner worthy of God. In perfect love, he gave his Son, but he did not lose sight of his justice for one moment. God maintains his justice; he is inseparable from his love.

Maintaining Justice←⤒🔗

Hell is not a place of horrible arbitrariness, but the result of the execution of his holy justice! With God there is no shadow of injustice. He is perfectly just. He speaks justly, maintains justice, and administers justice as no man can. He is never mistaken. He will be absolutely holy in his administration of justice (Revelation 15:1-4). God will weigh everything honestly as a perfectly just Judge. He does injustice to no one. He maintains his justice and administers it with perfect justice to every person. He will bring everything to light. He will judge everyone according to their deeds, their background, their circumstances. In hell, God maintains his justice. God is and remains forever wronged by people who wholeheartedly rejected his Son.

Distinction←⤒🔗

But what about all those people who have had no contact with Christ? How can they ever have offended his love? Surely God cannot hold them responsible for this? God will definitely not do that! He is perfectly and absolutely just. The Lord Jesus himself verbally declares that: “But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you” (Matthew 11:22). Yes, even for Sodom and Gomorrah, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment than for you who could have known (Matthew 11:23-24). There is thus absolutely no question of a gray mass in the drab darkness of hell. There is indeed definitely differentiation in punishment. “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). God will judge every person according to his or her deeds (Matthew 12:36-37; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Every person who has ever lived has a fair trial. You reap what you sowed yourself. Everyone must bear his own guilt and acknowledge the consequences of his deeds.

Judgment to Measure←⤒🔗

It is noteworthy that the Lord uses different standards for the Gentiles than for his own people. Thus, the Ammonites are not addressed on the basis of God’s laws given to Israel, but on the basis of their rejoicing at the demise of Judah (Ezekiel 25:6, 7). They are thus not reprimanded for things they could not have known. Judgment is according to measure! The same is true for the accusation against the king of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:1-10). Success and wealth went to his head; he allowed himself to be worshipped as a god. It is not acceptable to God when people so aggrandize their accomplishments and exalt themselves. God reprimands people who should have known better. The application is very specific to the person, as befits an honest judgment. God is and remains just. He asks us to trust him on that. And the pinnacle of application is that Tyre is admonished for the fact that they engage in unfair trade and thereby finance their temple service (Ezekiel 28:18). God gives much leeway by addressing them on the basis of their own religion. Even so, their temple treasures consist of stolen goods. Even according to your own standards, that is not right! Through all of this, we see how just God is. His judgment is based on an accusation that has the force of conviction for them.

Signs of Mercy←⤒🔗

God insists on his justice and is inseparable from his love. He is and remains just. This is thus not an unfeeling justice, but much rather an equitable justice. He remains merciful in his doing! The existence of gradations in punishment must mean that there is a moderation in hell. God does not paint everything and everyone with the same brush. God’s justice is permeated with his love! Whoever is convinced of that can better understand the following statements of K. Schilder, that even in hell, a distant reflection of God’s friendly face will not be absent, and that there are sparks of the light of God’s ample mercy there. Even in hell it must be acknowledged: the Lord is just in all his way and work. God is immeasurably good!

Acknowledgment and Remorse←⤒🔗

Every condemned person can do nothing but agree with the Judge’s verdict. They will both acknowledge and long for nothing but the execution of God’s justice. You can do nothing but conform to the judgment of God, for that judgment is crystal clear. The fairness of it cannot be argued against and nothing can be brought to bear against this judgment. Each one will be in agreement with the godly verdict, for every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord, whether willingly or unwillingly (Philippians 2:9-11). In this light, the weeping and gnashing of teeth do not indicate rebellion, but rather remorse and regret. The bitterness of the remorse is the inevitable judgment. You are brought into line with the will of God, but you have reached the last phase. You cannot circumvent it. Remorse has no future, for nothing follows it. You can only look back; you have no existence except in the past. Then one cannot but condemn himself in confrontation with God’s judgment. Your glance can only be focused on the life already lived. Change is no longer possible. This has been graphically described by Dante: “Let all hope flee when you enter here.” The worm that does not die illustrates this state: to remain fixated on the past and know the impossibility of being able to change the situation. He knows no renewal or change, only paralyzing powerlessness.

No Failure←⤒🔗

There is also no question of God failing in his victory over evil. He speaks his judgment and thereby permanently curbs evil! He permanently calls evil to order. Gehenna or hell is not the territory of Satan and his cronies where they have free rein and where God has no access. It is not Satan’s domain but rather his prison after the judgment has been passed (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4; Revelation 18:8; Revelation 19:2; Revelation 20:7-10). Hell is not a kingdom where God can do nothing about and has no influence. Sin cannot advance unbridled. Everything has been brought to the light, has been judged, and powerfully condemned (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 11:18; 20:12-13). Without this judgment and condemnation, victory would not be complete. Creatures would be able to continue to taunt, insult and revile God. But no, that is now irrevocably of the past. From the time of the last judgment, this scandalous opposition will cease. Nowhere does the Bible suggest a divine failure or an eternal continuation of sin. Everything and everyone will be brought under the lordship of God through Christ, the Judge (1 Corinthians 15:27-28). Here the reconciliation of all heavenly and earthly beings in Christ means the return to the harmony he desired (Colossians 1:20). Everyone will acknowledge his power, his right, and his sovereignty. Every person will sooner or later acknowledge that Christ is truly God’s answer to everything that caused hardship and problems here on earth. Everyone will acknowledge it; every knee will bow! God will finally receive the honour due to him for his work in sending his Son. Justice will completely triumph, whether through willing or unwilling hearts. That counts for every creature (Revelation 15:4). Also, in the judgment over those who have not repented, God will glorify his name (Ezekiel 38:23). The glorification of God remains the goal of every creature (Proverbs 16:4).

God Is Not Absent←⤒🔗

Hell is often referred to as the place where God is absent, as if it is a place where evil can continue unhindered. God definitely calls a halt to evil and has condemned it. But if God is not absent, how is he present then? He is present as the God who presents himself as the holy Creator and Judge. It is not as if God is righteous but infinitely merciful, as if this would be a contradiction. He is completely merciful and completely just. It is impossible for me to mesh these two, but they merge in Christ. He unites love and justice in one Person. Even in hell, it is apparent how just and merciful he is. The same presence that fills the people in heaven with love feels like wrath in hell because of the rejected love. The same presence that fills the people in heaven with joy gives the feeling of vexation of spirit and remorse in hell. The burning fire of God’s love and his wonderful radiance are the opposite in hell: blinding and scorching. It is the outer darkness. God is impossibly far away because the chasm cannot be bridged, from human perspective (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).

Question of Conscience←⤒🔗

How can you long for the future when your own husband or wife, child, brother or sister, friend, or acquaintance turns his or her back on God? How can you long for it when that great separation even divides families, unless a miracle happens? As long as a person is still alive, there is a way back. It is even possible that he or she may come to repentance when you are no longer here. We do not know God’s plan. And if there should be no repentance? Would you then not anticipate the final judgment with trepidation? Will you not miss this or that person? Out of the fear of missing someone, some have fearfully concluded that you will not recognize anyone and that you will have forgotten everything. That however is an escapist idea.

Would Christ miss them? Would Christ who in his great love gave himself, not miss those who turned their back on him? If the Lord Jesus does not miss them when he dwells in glory, it has to be good. Presently, it is difficult for us to understand, if only because we cannot see into the future. It is impossible for us to see it from that point of view. But we also do not have perfect faith; we lack complete trust in him as the totally just One, holy and good.

Brilliant, Glorious Justice←⤒🔗

The sea of glass described in Revelation 15 is clear as glass, transparent right up to the throne of God. It also has a fiery glow: the glow of his wrath, the indignation of his love, and his holy justice. Someday, everyone will acknowledge him: Lord, you are righteous. Today I cannot understand God’s plan. His judgments are not yet transparent. But, in the far future, I hope to see it completely clearly, in the light of Christ. No one loved the world as he did. If people are rejected, Christ cannot, in any way, be the cause. And would he, who wipes away all tears from our eyes, not know how to handle the grief that will come with the final judgment and separation?