John Piper said: “The horror of hell is in the infinite echo of God’s glory.”
Hell isn’t something I think about all that often. In fact, it rarely crosses my mind.
Hell is eternal punishment. Eternal, unending burning. Separation from God. The consequences for choosing to live life in a way that does not bring God the glory he deserves.
I can’t even picture what that must be like. I shudder to even try.
I am grateful for the grace of God that has me in a place where I have experienced salvation from sin and where I will not experience the horrors of hell. Thinking about hell makes me all the more grateful for his grace.
But the concept of hell hits differently when someone in your sphere dies without experiencing the grace of God and without having been saved.
This week, a former coworker of mine died suddenly in a motorcycle accident. He died an unbeliever. He went to hell. He is, right now, experiencing the horrors of being separated from God.
There are a lot of things that go through my mind when I dwell on that realization. First of all, how do I try to share the hope of the gospel with his close friends? How can I tell them that they can have eternal life…but their friend doesn’t have that chance anymore.
But then, how can I not tell them? How can I keep silent when I know that if I do they may miss hearing the hope and life that the truth of the gospel brings? Can I truly live with a clean conciense knowing that I could have spoken up but I remained silent for fear of offending someone or rubbing the wounds of having recently lost a friend?
It will be painful. But it will bring life and hope if they will listen.
And so I pray. I pray for wisdom. I pray for the words to speak at the right time. I pray that I would know when to remain silent and simly sit and listen. To cry with them. To be there for them. To love them. And then to speak truth. To offer these in my circle of influence the only way to experience hope, life, eternity…in the presence of God our Savior.
The death of this coworker has been a bitter and weighty reminder of the responsibility that I have to share the hope I have found in Christ with those around me. To warn them of the reality of the horrors of hell and to share the good news that God has made a way for each of us to escape the horrors and to be in his presence forever.
May this realization stick firmly in my mind and be one of the things that drives my evangelism efforts in all areas of life.