Finding God at Work 18: Responding to Questions: Hell
The point of sharing the Good News is not “winning.” Helping our friends in their journey toward Jesus is not a debate or an intellectual contest.
Jesus didn’t answer every question asked of him by people who weren’t really looking to be persuaded of his message. Instead, he taught in a way that reached the hearts of those who were genuinely seeking God.
At the same time, when people are seeking God, they’re also grappling with real intellectual questions. We don’t want to treat these questions like problems to solve or barriers to overcome. Instead, each question is an opportunity for people to see the beauty of Jesus just a little more clearly.
One of seekers’ common concerns is the question of Hell: Could a good God really send people to eternal punishment? It’s a question that can put us and our friends on edge.
But when we look at Jesus’ own teachings about Hell, we see that he’s teaching about people’s hearts. Drawing on the Hebrew wisdom literature, he shows that the trajectory of our lives now continues into eternity. When we take Jesus’ teaching seriously, we see that it’s good news of justice in the face of profound evil—and goes hand-in-hand with his offer of life to all who sincerely repent and believe.
Sources: Matthew 13:10-12 (NIV)
Proverbs 26:11 (Brenton’s Spetuagint Translation)
Isaiah 9:4 (NIV) Don Everts and Doug Schaupp, I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008).
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