This week I had the opportunity to teach English literature to a high school class. The reading for the day was an excerpt from Jonathan Edward's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". First of all I was surprised to see a religious sermon in a public classroom textbook even if it was put there as a fine literary example. Next it was a challenge to teach such material in a public classroom. How do I honor the material as I should without becoming "preachy"? Still, I found some of the writing very interesting and strangely uplifting. It was a classic "hellfire and brimstone" sermon such as which we try to stay away from these days. We don't want anyone to think of our God as angry. Yet if one paid close attention to the sermon there was also great hope and comfort for those who chose to be born again, convert and follow Christ. He noted that no amount of goodness and right behavior will save us but we must be a part of Christ's body because it is only Christ's blood which saves us. Wow! This is what I believe but for some reason this sermon resonated with me that day. I don't think I take Hell seriously enough and so I don't feel enough of an urgency to tell others of Christ. I want to help my friends and others outside of Christ to understand His love for us but I wonder if we don't grasp the depth of that love unless we understand the severity of Hell. God does not want us to spend eternity in Hell even though because of our sin we deserve it. There is no way we can be good enough in our earthly bodies to stand in the presence of our Holy God. It is through His great love and mercy that He sent Jesus to live among us and suffer a horrendous death so that we could choose to follow Him and therefore spend eternity in His presence.
We don't want to picture our God as angry and as a disciplinarian because we are afraid that people will not understand the depth of His love. Let me ask. When you see a parent discipline a child because they are about to run into the street or do something that will harm them, do we see that parent as angry and uncaring? No! We see that the parent loves that child enough to discipline and correct. Say the child continues to try running into the street even after being warned. Will not the parent become "angry" and increase the level of discipline or correction in an effort to turn the child from doing something that can take their life? Of course they would. Why then do we become so afraid to suggest that God will do all he can to keep us from Hell (in this analogy the street full of cars that can take our child's life). Why do we not give warnings about the existence and severity of Hell?
Jonathan Edward's dipiction of mankind as dangling over Hell as a spider in danger of falling into the firey pit might seem a bit extreme but he comes back to pointing out how Christ comes and rescues us from the firey pit by his grace. God loves us so much but we cannot understand that love unless we understand the danger we face without Him. We may think we are good but it is by the grace of God that we are saved from Hell. Satan wants us there. God does not.
May you feel the warmth of God wrapping around you today as you look to Him in love.
