All the evil of the world is always before God; the violence, abuse, malicious thinking, the pain and hate. He sees everything, the wickedness of hearts and the violence of actions; he witnesses all the evil in all time. One day this will stop. He will bring it to an end, but the amazing thing is that God looks, and he gazes, in love, a love that sends his only son to the Earth to create a way back to holiness; and he waits in patience so that each of us might turn back to him and be received. His mercy knows no bounds.
The Prodigal Son painted by Rembrandt
http://www.wga.hu/art/r/rembran/painting/biblic3/prodig2.jpg
God created us for the richness of eternity; this was his blessing, that we would worship him and enjoy him for ever. This is life, the enjoyment and worship of God who lavishes his love on us. God is love and he created us in his image able to experience and give love. Love is love when it is freely given and freely accepted; a parent might love their child but that love has to be accepted for it to be complete.
We are God’s treasure and he lavishes his love on us and we choose to return that love. My condition is that I am dead to God; faith awakens in me the possibility of life. If I catch God’s heart and hear his call this faith is realised and I fall to my knees and grasp his all enfolding grace. I am made new in Christ. It is God who awakens this faith as he waits patiently for my response and faith brings me to life from death.
Until I die it is this faith that sustains me, it is spiritual food that keeps me on the way and spiritual drink that refreshes me keeping me alive.
If I choose to remain dead turning my back on the call of God, I am counted with the violent, the abusers and haters who loath life and cling to death encouraging others to join them. God looks on in love longing to extend his mercy but one day there will be an end. God is patient; he waits and endures all the violence so that all may be welcomed into life.
One day this violence will be ended and burned up. God will end it and renew the Earth. Those who chose death will continue with their choice, eternal death. Eternity is a blessing God will not take back and we choose how we experience it.
I grieve at this; it is not the heart of God that any would be lost. He is the God of love, but love is not complete if it is not accepted. Love does not force itself. For love to be glorified it has to be chosen. The story of the returning prodigal son echoes this. Because God is a God of love there has to be a hell or love would be meaningless. But my response is to do the work of the Father and have faith in him seeking out of my own poverty, brokenness and need those who are hurting, to bring them to faith. Eternity on a renewed Earth is the blessing we have been created for- God is true to this blessing and through Jesus we are saved from eternal death to eternal life.
Jesus has a lot to say about the misery of hell but he reserves his ire for the self righteous and self assured – religious bigots, absolutists and hypocrites who keep others from love. To everyman he has given the gift of the light of faith shining in their hearts so that everyman might be rescued from the darkness into the light. This is made possible in Jesus.
John 3:16-21 (ESV) 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
