The Great Separation

We saw in yesterday’s study that the reality of hell is taught in Scripture, primarily by Jesus Himself. But why does hell exist? Why is it necessary? Simply put, it exists because of God.

Behind the doctrine of hell stand a number of Biblical concepts about God. First, He is sovereign. As the government of the universe, He rules over all His creatures. Second, He is holy, perfectly righteous in all that He does. Finally, He is just. When one of His creatures offends His holiness by rebelling against His rule, He must respond. He cannot simply wink at sin; His holiness demands that He judge it. And the testimony of the New Testament is that He will do so.

Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats illustrates this truth. In this parable, Jesus speaks of His second coming. At that time, He says, He will sit on His throne and all the nations will be gathered before Him. He then will proceed to “‘separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.’ ” The separation criteria will be the deeds each person has performed—or not performed. On that basis, rewards and punishments will be handed out: “‘the righteous will go away into eternal life’” while ‘ “[the unrighteous] will go away into everlasting punishment.’ ” Jesus clearly is discussing judgment here. But not only is He talking about it, He is inserting Himself into the parable, asserting that He will be the one doing the judging on God’s behalf. The one we love to think of as “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” will assign legions of men and women to eternal torment.

In the New Testament, the Greek word used for “judgment” is krisis. This word comes directly into the English language as crisis. It is easy to see that the Last Judgment will be the supreme crisis for those people who have rebelled against God. By contrast, the righteous ones will be marked for escape from the ultimate calamity of judgment. They will inherit their reward—eternal life in heaven. They will have been saved—saved from none other than God Himself.

At the final judgment, some receive God’s grace and go to heaven for eternity. Others receive His justice and suffer His wrath against their sin for eternity in hell. It is important to note that no one receives injustice from God. He is perfectly just in sentencing unredeemed sinners to hell. And He will do so.