Do you know what road you are on?
It was 7:30 on a crisp, cool Sunday morning. Fishermen were already orking the banks of the Arkansas River, and Captain Joe Dedmon was trolling his barge on its usual route upstream, when something went terribly wrong. Somehow, Captain Dedmon lost consciousness as he was maneuvering the barge underneath the Interstate 40 bridge and struck one of its supporting beams, collapsing a 600-foot section of the bridge. Within minutes, cars, trucks and trailers that were traveling down I-40 for the memorial day weekend began shooting off the end of the bridge at top speed and plunging 60 feet down to the water below. one fisherman saw the whole thing and said, “It was just one car after another hitting the end of the bridge at 70 miles per hour. Nobody could see that the bridge was gone.”
Fourteen people died that day. If there had been someone to stand on the highway that morning and warn the cars, to wave them down, then maybe lives could have been saved!
What road are you on?
The Bible compares our life to traveling down a road. The proverb writer put it clearly: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death,” (Proverbs 14.12 ESV).
The Bible makes it clear that we are all travelers on a road, and the road you are on determines your final destination. There is a road that leads to life, and there is a road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7.13-14 ESV). That place of destruction is called hell.
Jesus warned us about hell
Hell is mentioned in the Scriptures 167 times. Jesus preached on hell thirty-three times in a three-year ministry. That’s roughly one message on hell a month. With each message, Jesus was standing beside the road waving his hands, warning people that destruction was ahead. one day, Jesus told a story about hell to warn people.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead,” (Luke 16.19-31 ESV).
The Hades hotel is only temporary
The Hades hotel Jesus said that a rich man died and went to Hades. Hades – along with its old Testament counterpart, Sheol – represented the place people go when they die apart from Christ. It’s not the permanent place; it’s only a temporary holding place until the end of time when Christ returns. Think of it as the Hades Hotel.
But Hades always carried the idea of eternal punishment. Notice how Jesus described this place. It is a place of torment. Jesus refers to this as a place of fire 19 times. Fire has always been a symbol of divine judgment (Hebrews 12.29 ESV).
Singer and performer Jerry Lee Lewis said, “If I’m going to hell, I’m going there playing the piano” – but there is no piano playing there. It’s a place of torment. It’s a place of separation.
This man was cut off from everyone, separated by a great chasm. Hades is filled with people who lived their life on this earth saying, “God, I want to do my own thing and live my own life. I don’t need you, and I don’t want you. Leave me alone.” In Hades, God gives them what they want.
It’s also a place of concern. The man begged to send a warning message to his family. He was told, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them,” (this is a reference to the Scriptures). In other words: If they won’t believe the Bible, then they won’t believe even if someone rises from the dead.
This man knew where he was and why he was there. He never complained that God was unjust. Everyone in hell knows why they are there and that God’s punishment is just.
The final resting place is worse
Up to this point we have been talking about Hades. A place of waiting, it’s a temporary place, not a permanent place. But that’s not what hell will eventually be. (Revelation 20.14 NIV) says, that one day, when Christ returns: “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.”
That “lake of fire” is the permanent place called hell. The name for this place is Gehenna. This word is used twelve times to describe hell, eleven times by Jesus Himself. Literally it means the “Valley of Hinnom.” It was a dark place in Israel’s history. If you were to travel to Jerusalem today, you would see this valley just south of the old city. In the time of Jesus, it was a dumping ground for trash and the bodies of executed criminals. It was a filthy, disgusting, terrible place where you could smell burning flesh. That is the picture Jesus said best describes this place.
In some ways hell is different from Hades. Hell is described as a place of utter darkness (Matthew 8.12 ESV). It’s a place of no rest (Revelation 14.11 ESV). It’s a place of complete hopelessness. In (Matthew 25.46 NIV) Jesus said, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Hell is eternal. It’s forever.
In the Old Testament book of Daniel, he writes, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt,” (Daniel 12.2 NIV). Dante, the 14th century scholar, imagined entering hell and the words inscribed over the door read “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
Why would God create a place like hell?
God did not create hell for you. God did not create hell for people. Hell was created for Satan and his demons that rebelled against God. In (Matthew 25.41 ESV) Jesus said, “Then He will say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
God prepared hell for the devil and his fallen angels that rebelled against God. But here is the problem, the devil convinced us that he had a better plan and got us to follow him. And now, the entire world is following his lead (Ephesians 2.2 ESV). We are following his lead when we lie, cheat and act in an immoral, ungodly, angry or abusive manner to people. We are following his lead when we break God’s laws, demand our own way, worship other things more than God and demand that God leave us alone.
When we follow Satan’s lead, we are following him down a road that leads to hell. The only people who are in hell are people who have rebelled against God and are guilty of sin. But the reality is, we all have sinned. The Bible says that there is not one person alive who hasn’t sinned against God, and God would be just and right in sending us all to hell (Romans 3.10-18 ESV).
God’s way of escape
But God loved you too much to see that happen, so He made a way for you to be forgiven and to escape hell. God didn’t create hell for you; God created Heaven for you! Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am,” (John 14.1-3 ESV).
That is the heart of God. God loves you and wants to live now and for all eternity in a rich, deep, personal fellowship with you! God sent His only Son to this earth, and He placed all of your sin onto Jesus (2 Corinthians 5.21 ESV). As Jesus died on that cross 2,000 years ago, He suffered the wrath of God on your behalf. He absorbed your punishment. He took your place. He died and rose again, proving to all heaven and earth that He alone is able to restore you back into a relationship with God.
There is only one way to escape hell and gain heaven. You have to do a U-turn. The Bible calls that repentance.
(2 Peter 3.9 NIV) says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God doesn’t want you to perish; He wants you to repent, turn around and turn to jesus.
This blog originally appeared at: What Road Are You On? How to Escape The Road That Leads to Destruction – discipleFIRST and features an excerpt from one of their books, Reach Your World.