Having shared some thoughts of heaven and of earth over the last two days, it might be expected that today I would share thoughts of hell. And what heavy and sad thoughts they are… Hell is not a pleasant thing to think about; but we can’t escape the fact that our Saviour and His Holy Scripture put it before our minds repeatedly and honestly in an effort to strike the conscience with the truth and fearfulness of it. We must, therefore, think of hell. But alas! there’s nothing good that can be said about it.
All the sufferings of hell will be infinitely exacerbated by two things: its extremity and its eternity.
Consider the extremity of the punishment of hell. It’s impossible for us to imagine just how bad it will be. Its description is beyond all human expression. Our most fearful thoughts cannot begin to equal the horror of it. For who can know the power of God’s anger and wrath (Ps 90.11)? Who can describe the plagues prepared by infinite justice and Almighty wrath for obstinate sinners? None can tell what God can do, and what man can suffer, when made capable by immortality to endure torments forever. As the happiness of heaven cannot be fully understood until enjoyed, so the torments of hell cannot be fully understood until felt. Yet, our Lord makes clear that the greatest sufferings of this life have no comparison with the sufferings of hell (Mk 9.43-49).
Whatever miseries may be suffered in this life, they are all allayed with some enjoyments. None is so universally afflicted, so desolate, but something remains to sweeten and soften their sufferings. All the judgments and sufferings on earth are tempered with mercies. No man is tortured with all diseases, forsaken of all friends, utterly without all comfort, and void of all sympathy and pity. But in hell, the damned are surrounded with terrors, encompassed with flames, without anything at all to all their sufferings–not a single drop of water in a whole lake of fire. All that brought any measure of joy and relief here is totally withdrawn. Death put a period to all their pleasures forever. It would be a measure of comfort if at least someone would pity them. But not even this is afforded the damned. All their agonies and cries cannot incline the compassion of God and the blessed in heaven. Their misery is the just punishment of their sins. Theirs is the perfection of misery. In heaven all good is eminently comprised, and nothing but good; in hell all evil is in excessive degrees, and nothing but evil. So great and extreme is the suffering in hell that if a man were able to flee the sufferings of hell and escape into all the sufferings of earth combined–even if suffered forever–it would be to exchange an unbearable torment for a welcome refreshment.
But even the extremity of hell’s suffering would be eased if it were not eternal. The eternity of hell is the very eye of its great storm, the very fire of its flames. God will never reverse the sentence and they can never change their state. All the tears of all the damned will never quench one spark of that fire. Human justice and power can inflict but one death upon a criminal. Even if a criminal deserves to suffer a hundred deaths for his crimes, he can suffer but one at the hands of men. But God will support the damned in their torments by immortality so that they will be forever able to feel their judgment. Rev 20.10 is as plain as the noonday sun, “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” They will seek for death but not find it. They will long for death but not have it. As precious as their own souls are to them, in the midst of their pains they would do anything to be annihilated by God and exist no more forever. But having willfully sinned against an infinite God, they must now suffer His infinite wrath. They must lie under His just judgment as long as He is on the throne of justice, which is forever and ever. They are absolutely destitute of all hopes of release. They will come to feel the truth of that verse, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the eternally living God” (Heb 10.31).
Hell is a place and a judgment that we should wish to know no more about than what our Saviour has told us. It is a truth that we would be wise to take at our Saviour’s word and not question or trifle with.
But I dare not end so sadly. Let me leave you with a few better thoughts.
1) What a mercy it is that God has told us so clearly of hell. How willing He is that sinners should be saved and not damned! He invitingly tells us comparatively little of heaven, wanting us to come and see it for ourselves (Mt 11.28; Jn 8.12); but He mercifully tells us so much about hell, wanting us to flee from the wrath to come (Lk 3.7; 1Th 1.10). Can any man lay any charge against God for the reality of hell when He not only tells us about it, but counsels sinners to fly from it, commands sinners to repent and seek their refuge in His Son, entreats and begs sinners to come to Him for life, urges foolish sinners to be wise unto salvation––all that sinners may foresee and prevent the evil that is nearer to them by the hour?
2)How depraved man must be and how great must be his bondage in sin when, after all that God has said of the hell awaiting him if does not repent of his sins, he clings still to his sins. Why is man so willing to be damned!? What will a thousand pleasures, a lifetime of sin’s delights be to him when he is in the extremities of eternal torment! For the sinner who thinks a life of sin is worth an eternal life of hell, he’ll come to see–without relief– that it would have been better for him if he had never been born. ––How great, therefore, is the grace and mercy of God that ever opened our eyes and saved our souls! What endless and eternal praise is due to Him from us!
3) O how precious is the Saviour to us now, dear friends!? He who would leave all the delights and glories of heaven to suffer our hell on the cross of Calvary!! He who so loved wretched sinners such as we that He willingly came to bear His own terrible wrath, to suffer His own holy justice, to be crushed under the blows due to us for our sins! None could know what He was to suffer but Him, and yet He suffered it still. Is this not incomparable and matchless love?
How much, now, do we owe Him dear saints!? Does He ask for a life of service, devotion, and obedience? How can we not give it? Does He ask for the love of our hearts? Dare we deny Him? ––O that these thoughts of the hell we deserved, the hell He suffered for us, might cause us to dearly feel our obligations to Him who “delivered us from the wrath to come” and purchased for us an eternal heaven with endless delights!
