JESUS SPEAKS a sobering message to those who will not receive or who deliberately diminish the exclusivity of the gospel. His unique authority is centered in his emphatic statement, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) That singular authority is attested to by his resurrection. Across two millennia, and before and beyond, he declares, “I lay down my life—only to take it up again. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” (John 10:18)
To anyone that espouses universalism, or deism, or any of the other religions of the world, or philosophy in its myriad attempts to render the natural as metaphysical, Jesus says “they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matt. 25:46) There is heaven, where children of God will live eternally in shalom, a perfected peace of cosmos and soul. And there is hell, where “the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (Isa. 66:24, Mark 9:48)
Jesus is very focused in his teachings about hell. In the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man (cf. Luke 16:19-31), Jesus demolishes the concepts of soul sleep, annihilism, or universalism. Both men die. They are separated, “Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.” (Luke 16:23b), but the rich man is “In Hades, where he was in torment.” (Luke 16:23a) He is “in agony in this fire,” (Luke 16:24b), and is able to see and speak, “Father Abraham, have pity on me.” (Luke 16:24a). And his condition is permanent, for Abraham responds to his anguished plea, “between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” (Luke 16:26)
Jesus speaks of hell often, and places the responsibility for residency there squarely on our own shoulders—how we live in our bodies has direct correlation to our eternal destination. “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” (Mark 9:43-48)
However, it is not only the actions of the body, as important as these are, that solidify our path towards an eternity separated from God. Instead, those begin in the hardening of the heart. “I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister , will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matt. 5:22) Jesus gives clear insight to the motivation for our speech, saying, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45b) James warns of perverse speech, as he cautions us “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6)
From the heart the actions are carried out by the body. So wisdom warns us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” (Prov. 4:23-27)
But let us go deeper yet. The choices of the heart are made manifest by the actions of the body—we understand this. And, we also know that such choices have direct correlation to the exercise of our will. We have the rational capability to analyze any circumstance that requires action, to deduce the options on how to respond, to weigh our response in relationship to the probable outcomes, and from there to take action.
It follows logically that we would choose the action that most benefits us—to choose pleasure over pain, for instance, or success over failure. But as we look at everyone around us, or, most importantly in these matters, at our own personal history, we clearly see that knowledge and force of will are simply not enough to direct our choices. The disfunction of our relationships and the chaos of our lives is clear testimony to the fact that something more than this is a force that must be somehow reconciled in order to clarify and empower our choices. There is no mystery about this from a biblical perspective (cf. Gen. 3:11-24)—the problem is the sin nature that we inherit from Adam and Eve at the moment of our conception.
Here’s an inexorable foundational biblical theological maxim: We don’t have to do anything ‘wrong’ to go to hell. It is not our sins of omission or commission that send us to hell; instead, we came bound for hell because the sin nature is resident within us. At conception, at birth, and throughout every step of life we are plagued with this in our unredeemed essence and substance. Our manifested sins are merely proof of the fact that we are born with a heart condition that renders us incapable of fixing our own problem. God has designed us this way so that the pain of our choices will cause us to seek him.
And here’s the best biblical theology: God has provided a remedy for our heart condition by sending us Jesus to save us from that which we cannot save ourselves. (cf. 1 Pet. 5:10) He prophesied this through Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:26) And our Father confirms this through Peter: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12; cf. John 3:16-17, John 3:5-7)
So we turn and return gratefully, perhaps even desperately, to Jesus’ assertion: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) In binding ourselves to that statement—that is, *‘reckoning’ it as true—we find our choice made clear. And in that positive choice are the promises of God fulfilled to us and to all those who inhabit human history past, present, and future: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” (Matt. 25:31-41)
Q. What shall I do about the nightcrawlers?
*Louw-Nida 29.4 – “logizomai” – “to add up in one’s mind” or “to make a list in one’s heart.”