The Habits of Sin Do Not Vanish at the Other Side of the Granite Door

Hebrews 9:27-28

Before we look at the third assumption which makes us uncomfortable with the reality of Hell, we need to say a little more about the false hope of a second chance after death. Jesus addressed this matter in Luke 16:19-31. We will have a little more to say about this account in a future article. My interest here is what Jesus says about the attitude of a man awaiting the carrying out of the final sentence.

The circumstances are clear.

1. The man was in torment.
2. The mercy he cried for was motivated by pain not repentance.
3. He did not ask to be brought over to the other side. Rather, he wanted the former beggar, Lazarus, to be sent to ease his agony.

Having been a man of wealth and position and power, it would seem his heart for the privilege of being served had not changed. Unless one has a new nature in Christ, the habits of sin do not vanish on the other side of the granite door. 

Failing to get someone from the servant class to meet his needs, he wanted him to be sent to warn his brothers. But warn them of what? Abraham saw the man's dedication to the false assumption that existential experience is the foundation of right choices. 

• Abraham:  They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them.
• Man in torment:  No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
• Abraham:  If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.

The purpose of the Law is to expose sin and underscore the need for repentance, mercy and change. Repentance based on miracle rather than truth is shallow at best. Such is our dedication to sin that even someone coming back from the dead would not move us. That takes a new birth generated by God’s Holy Spirit.

Have you experienced that new birth?

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We Can Understand Our Need For Mercy If We Think About It

Inconsiderate Drivers and Pedestrians

The Scripture calls for repentant hearts to desire mercy from a holy God against whom we have rebelled. It has nothing to do with our self-proclaimed rights but everything to do with his authentic rights. When God created man in his image his intention was that we should highlight his character well and applaud his glory. It was and is his right as our creator to expect that.

We can understand this mind-set. We nurture the same desire in our own hearts. We expect what we bought to work as it should. We expect something loaned to be treated with respect and returned in good condition. We expect people to be considerate simply because we exist.

We can understand something else as well. When the purchased thing does not work, when the thing loaned is ruined and not made right, when the motorist drenches us as we stand on the curb, we experience a knee jerk reaction of anger which easily morphs to wrath. This is a part of our fallen desire to play God. He alone has the capacity to be justly angry and the authority to make that anger known in wrath. And he does. 

          He is angry with the wicked every day. 

          He condemns those in unbelief and puts them under the sentence of wrath. 

God does not express this anger and wrath on the basis of our finiteness (“I’m only human”). His anger is not about “mistakes” of immaturity. It is about treason - uncooperative, destructive, inconsiderate treason against the one to whom we owe our very existence.

God is not desperately seeking people to love him. He has deliberately called and is determinedly seeking among the milling crowd of traitors those who will cry out for mercy and restoration to his Kingdom. As for those who will not seek it... 

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