“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
Luke 13:24-30 NIV
Jesus called people, who heard His teaching, and His warnings, but made no effort to do what He said, even after He had made it clear and simple, “evildoers”…
…because entry into His kingdom was simple…
“Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:28-29 NIV
Why so? Why is unbelief evil?
The worst thing any human can do to God is call Him a liar. Unbelief is exactly that! John wrote…
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
1 John 1:8, 10 NIV
No matter what we have done to confirm our unbelief…which the Bible calls “sin”, unbelief is the root and sin the fruit. It’s unbelief that will condemn the sinner to the place Jesus said was prepared for the Satan snd his adherents.
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:18 NIV
The Bible doesn’t give us a detailed description of the place to which Satan and unbelievers will be consigned. In the Old Testament, it is described as a holding place for the dead, a shadowy realm somewhere in the underworld called “Sheol”.
Google AI describes it as…
“Sheol is the Hebrew Bible’s term for the, “abode of the dead,” a subterranean, shadowy underworld or common grave where all people—righteous and wicked—go after death. Described as a silent, dark, and gloomy place of decay, it represents a temporary state of waiting for resurrection rather than a final destination.”
Jesus gave this place, called Hades, little more shape and colour.
“In the New Testament, Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, representing the temporary, intermediate realm of the dead holding departed spirits between death and final judgment. It is distinct from the final “Lake of Fire” (Hell) and often described as containing two compartments: a place of torment for the wicked and a place of rest (often called “Abraham’s bosom” or Paradise) for the righteous.”
(Source: Google AI)
It seems that this state, for the dead, is a place of waiting for the return of Jesus to earth, where and when He will finalise the eternal state of the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous will be given new bodies like the body of Jesus at the general resurrection. The unrighteous will also be raised with eternal bodies. However, we only know that those bodies will feel the torment of fire.
Jesus’ use of “Gehenna” as a picture of Hades, the place outside Jerusalem where the city’s garbage was burned, seems to suggest that wasted lives and wasted potential will be the reason they are discarded on the eternal “ rubbish dump”.
Jesus told another story that qualifies what faith really means …
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
Luke 16:19-21 NIV
The earthly situation of these two men is reversed at death…
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”
Luke 16:22-24 NIV
Was Jesus telling this story to scare people or was it a sober reminder of the consequences of unbelief? In the context of the story, the rich man was in “Gehenna”, the garbage dump of wasted potential, because his belief system left no room for compassion or mercy.
Belief that does not issue in obedience is as sterile as unbelief. Hence, generosity to the poor is the other side of the coin of faith in Jesus. Faith and fruit must always go together. Proximity to Jesus without the union of faith that issues in fruit will not cut it with Him.
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?…And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”
1 John 3:17, 23 NIV
Let us not be fooled into thinking that, because we believe in God, we have eternal life. Let us do what believing in Jesus really means…turning away from our selfish independence and its fruit, renouncing our right to run our own lives, entrusting ourselves to Jesus’ lordship, and faithfully obeying His commandments under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
Romans 10:9-10 NIV
This takes choice and effort!
To be continued…