[Alright… I admit it… the title is a bit misleading. I believe in hell primarily for only one reason. Because the Bible teaches about its existence with absolute clarity. It is a place for Satan, his demons and the unrepentant people of the earth. However, I do find something comforting in the Biblical doctrine of hell. That is what this post is about.]
Last night, as news rang out about the death of Osama Bin Laden at the hands of U.S. troops, a common phrase was being used – “Justice has been served.” It is a statement that we run to quickly. Yes, Bin Laden’s death is justified. But is it justice? I would submit, no… it just simply can’t be justice.
Why? Simply put Bin Laden’s death is the death of one man. A man responsible for killing thousands, perhaps ten’s of thousands of people. Is one man’s death really justly equal to the death of thousands at his own hand? Certainly not.
In fact, one could even say Bin Laden got off easy. Of the thousands of people he killed, few went as easy as he did. Think about the people in the buildings on 911 trapped above the fire. They experienced nearly one hour or tortuous horror before falling to their deaths. Or the people in the planes above Pennsylvania, many calling their relatives on cell phones to say “goodbye” before the plane inevitably went down. Let alone the many others who suffered physically, emotionally, and psychologically at the hands of Bin Laden’s plans and plots – some still to this day. What was “justice” for this? A few minutes of a firefight and an instant, almost painless, death with a bullet through the head. The quick death of Bin Laden seems to ring hallow to our sense of true justice.
This is the true problem of evil in the world today. Try as we might, in our existence evil cannot receive true justice. We can kill the terrorist but we cannot do so in a way that equates all the horror he’s inflicted upon the world. How then is justice truly served?
Justice is found in the doctrine of hell. In the biblical understanding of the afterlife, the evil will be judged based on their deed (Revelations 20-21). While men like Bin Laden (at the hands of U.S. armed forces) or Hitler (killed by his own hand) might have experienced a quick death, they will not escape true justice.
There is such a thing as cumulative morality in the world. People do evil things and good things and there is a record of the right or the wrong that we do. Those who do evil things in this life that can never be completely or justly satisfied in this life will pay for their actions in eternity. The doctrine of hell does satisfy this problem of evil. Make no mistake about it, Bin Ladin was an evil man – more evil than most of humanity. There is nothing Biblically wrong with believing that, and there is nothing Biblically wrong with being thankful that one like him received his due justice. And hell does satisfy this sense of justice.
However, there is also such a thing as absolute morality. That is our status as moral beings. The Bible makes is clear that none of us has a good moral nature (Romans 3). We are all, by nature, enemies of God (Ephesians 1-2). And our offense against God is by nature eternal because God is eternal. And an eternal crime CANNOT be satisfied even in an everlasting punishment in hell because eternity is GREATER than everlasting. The reality is that from an absolute morality, I am no better than Bin Ladin. Both by nature evil, both by nature an enemy of God, both by nature and the curse of sin doomed to an everlasting existence in hell. So while hell does satisfy the cumulative nature of evil and justice, it cannot solve our absolute nature of evil and justice.
Only the cross of Christ can solve the problem of absolute morality. That is because Jesus Christ was eternal and perfect. He took on our sin by choice. Died the death that sin required. Because he was eternal (John 1), his morality and judgment was able to fulfill the requirements of our absolute moral state. We are then made right, just, justified due to our faith in him and submission to his lordship (2 Corinthians 5). Thus, in Jesus, every evil can be satisfied when we put our trust in him. I can stand free from hell due to Jesus’ sacrifice for me, and the faith he grants me to trust that he satisfied the justice my sin deserves.
The reality of true justice is the reality that every evil ever committed will be completely paid for. The question is, who pays for it? Jesus with its absolute perfection through the death on the cross? Or us in an everlasting existence in hell. It is in this Biblical doctrine that justice is truly served.
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