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I Deserve Hell

I deserve Hell. Not only do I deserve to spend an unending existence in the darkness, loneliness and suffering of eternal damnation, but I have committed the worst sin possible. More on that in a moment, but this is a sobering thought. I deserve Hell. In fact, there is not a single person agonizing in the dark pit right now who thinks they don’t deserve it. All have had their inner life on earth totally exposed before the righteous and holy God. There may be shame and regret, but there is no thought of innocence as the waves of the lake of fire engulf them without consuming them.

And that is what I deserve as well. I deserve the eternal punishment of Hell. If God were to send me there right now, I could have no complaint against His justice. To make matters worse, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. That’s right, I am completely helpless to do anything before God that would earn me favour and change my dreadful destiny. Not only am I helpless, but in myself I have no desire to change. I deserve the fate that I have voluntarily chosen. I deserve Hell.

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I Deserve Hell

The Bible is clear:

…as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Rom. 3:10-12, ESV

To top it off, as I said at the beginning, I have committed the worst sin possible. Now I know your mind is whirling, going through a catalogue of possible sins to see which is the worst…and maybe being a little relieved that you are not quite that bad. I am confident that all the sins you have mentally listed involve actions against other human beings. And before you get too comfortable, let me point out an obvious fact: The greatest sin would be breaking the greatest commandment. Jesus Himself tells us what the greatest commandment is in Matthew 22:37-39:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

You don’t even have to know me to know that I have not loved my neighbour according to God’s standard… and that is only the second greatest commandment. As a non-Christian, I had no desire to keep the greatest commandment. I violated it without thought or care. Even as a Christian for over fifty years, I have failed every single day to love God as He deserves to be loved. I have committed the greatest sin possible, failing to love My Creator and Redeemer with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind. God is love and in His great compassion, He has poured out His love on me and desired to draw me into the perfect joy, peace and love of Who He is, and yet many times I have ungratefully rejected it. Even after accepting it, I have failed to respond with the total love that has been given to me, revealing a hurtful, self-centred side in me. Every sin, no matter how small, is a terrible, intimate, painful assault on the very nature of God, and often I don’t even give it a second thought.

We Are Helpless

Now for the most sobering thought of all: You are no different. You deserve Hell as much as I do or any other human being who has ever lived. That rages against our human pride. We like to think we are good people. Hitler may deserve hell, but not me. And we all do good things, even sacrificial things, on a human level, which is part of the image of God in us from creation. But in our relationship with God, we can do nothing good. We deserve Hell, and we are helpless to change it. In our sinful nature, we don’t even want to change it.

Our only hope is that God will intervene in our lives against our sinful will and change our hearts so that we begin to seek after Him. God in love and mercy does precisely that. He reaches down and changes hard hearts into soft ones.

Listen carefully to the words of the first three verses of the great hymn Rock of Ages. Meditate on them, letting them sink into your mind and spirit.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in Thee;

let the water and the blood,

from Thy wounded side which flowed,

be of sin the double cure;

save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labours of my hands

can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

could my zeal no respite know,

could my tears forever flow,

all for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

simply to the cross I cling;

naked, come to Thee for dress;

helpless, look to Thee for grace;

foul, I to the fountain fly;

wash me, Saviour, or I die.

If you are a non-Christian, you need to realize the danger in which you stand, and that the love and compassion of God is calling to you, with the only way to receive forgiveness and stand right before God. You may do many great and loving things on a human level, but they don’t change your position before God. You need to cry out to God for mercy through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died to pay the price for your sins and mine, and He rose from the dead to give us new life and allow us to become sons or daughters of God. Repent of your sins, and give God no rest until you have the peace and assurance of knowing that He has saved you and placed you into His family, where you can experience His love forever.

If you are a Christian, think about the greatness of God’s love for you when you were a helpless rebel shaking your fist in His face. Let your heart overflow with thanksgiving and praise that He did not leave you like that but intervened in your life. Even though we violate the first commandment every day, it is not a cause for condemnation. There is no shame and condemnation in our relationship with God. We are in a mutual love relationship, and we will grow better at loving Him day by day. We can never love or give God more than He deserves, but He freely gives us forgiveness every day, and we can walk in joy, peace and love with Him daily. And we should be very thankful that He has not given us what we deserve, but has swept us up in His arms to be loved for eternity.

For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.

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