One of the great questions that faces the church today concerns the existence and the nature of hell. Hell is under attack from outside the visible church and from inside. The question each one of us must answer is this: Does hell exist? Is it, as Christians have long claimed, a place of eternal, conscious punishment, a real place where real people will go for real time and face the real wrath of a real God?

Such a question may be a little bit misleading. To ask whether hell exists is not really a question about a place, like when you ask, “Does the city of Philadelphia actually exist?” or “Was there really a city called Jericho?” It is not a question of world geography, but of Divine character. The question of hell is first and foremost a question about the character of God. Here’s the thing: If there is a hell, we know that it cannot exist outside of the knowledge and the will of God. If God is who he says he is, if he really is all-knowing and all-powerful, then people cannot be there outside of his decree. And so any question about the existence of hell is really a question about God himself.

In a brief series of articles, I want to explore the relationship of God’s holiness to human sin and ask this question: What happens when human sin collides with God’s holiness? I will need to presuppose that you have some understanding of God’s holiness and that you know that God’s holiness is one of his most fundamental attributes. God’s holiness is his quality of being set apart, of being completely unlike anything or anyone else. His holiness pervades all he is and all he does. There is a sense in which his holiness modifies his other attributes, so that his love is a holy love and his justice is a holy justice.

In some way all sin is a violation of the holiness of God. God tells us, “Be holy as I am holy.” We are created in the image of the holy God; we are created as holy beings. Yet with every sin we choose unholiness in place of holiness, we choose our way instead of God’s way. With every sin we make light of God’s holiness, we make light of the fact that we are made in God’s image and are told to be like him. Every sin is a statement to God that says, “I choose not to be holy; I choose not to act in your image; I choose my way instead of your way!”

So what is the holy way for the holy God to act in the face of such sin? The Bible shows us that God may respond in two ways--he responds in patient mercy or he responds in just wrath.

In this series I want to go to the Bible to show that we worship a God of mercy and of wrath—a God who is praiseworthy for his mercy and his wrath. In fact, the only God who is worthy of our worship is the God who holds out not only the hope of heaven but also the horror of hell.

Here is how I will divide this up. First we will see that at times the holy God reacts to our sin with just wrath. Then we will see that at times the holy God reacts to our sin with patient mercy. Then, to wrap things up, we will look to the place where wrath and mercy meet. What we will see as we take a deep look at the character of God as it comes into contact with sin is that there is an inexorable connection between God’s holiness and the existence of hell. We will see that hell exists because God is holy—that hell must exist because God must be holy.

That will do by way of introduction. Stay tuned for part two of this series tomorrow.

Today’s guest blog comes courtesy of Chris Larson. Chris is responsible for the outreach and operations of Ligonier Ministries. And, as it happens, he is also a friend. Chris was kind enough to provide an article dealing with mercy.

*****

Peter didn't just blow it, he blew it badly. "Though they all fall away...I will never fall away" (Matt. 26:33). Peter's resolution we admire for its confidence and bravery. But it is a statement relying on one's own strength and it is doomed for shipwreck. A few hours go by and we find him alone and weeping (v. 75).

We can relate, can't we? We've made promise after promise to the Lord, resolution after resolution, only to come to the end of ourselves. The sinking feeling churns in our stomach, our earlier words of bold resolve pour like fuel on the fire of guilt and self-condemnation.

Godly sorrow doesn't remove the sting of sin's consequence. Falling short of the glory of God every day in word, thought, and deed is the norm, not the exception (Rom. 3:23). We may be surprised when we blow it, but our sins do not surprise the omniscient, holy God.

So often we want to hide from the Lord when we sin. Yet after Peter's very public failure, he doesn't hide. He waits. Notice what Peter did when he heard it was Jesus on the beach. His exuberance leaps off the pages of the Bible when we read how he throws himself into the water and swims to shore (John 21:7).

This week, while reading Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed, I came across a quote I wanted to share with you. Here Sibbes offers a sharp warning against anyone who would resist Christ’s mercy. There are not too many people today who will preach what he teaches here.

There are those who take it on themselves to cast water on those sparks which Christ labors to kindle in them, because they will not be troubled with the light of them. Such must know that the Lamb can be angry, and that they who will not come under his scepter of mercy shall be crushed in pieces by his scepter of power (Psa. 2:9). Though he will graciously tend and maintain the least spark of true grace, yet where he finds not the spark of grace but opposition to his Spirit striving with them, his wrath, once kindled, shall burn to hell. There is no more just provocation than when kindness is churlishly refused.

When God would have cured Babylon, and she would not be cured, then she was given up to destruction (Jer. 51:9). When Jerusalem would not be gathered under the wing of Christ, then their habitation is left desolate (Matt. 23:37,38). When wisdom stretches out her hand and men refuse, then wisdom will laugh at men’s destruction (Prow. 1:26). Salvation itself will not save those that spill the medicine and cast away the plaster. It is a pitiful case, when this merciful Saviour shall delight in destruction; when he that made men shall have no mercy on them (Isa. 27:11).

Oh, say the rebels of the time, God has not made us to damn us. Yes, if you will not meet Christ in the ways of his mercy, it is fitting that you should ‘eat of the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices’ (Prow. 1:31). This will be the hell of hell, when men shall think that they have loved their sins more than their souls; when they shall think what love and mercy has been enforced upon them, and yet they would perish. The more accessory we are in pulling a judgment upon ourselves, the more the conscience will be confounded in itself. Then they shall acknowledge Christ to be without any blame, themselves without any excuse.

If men appeal to their own consciences, they will tell them that the Holy Spirit has often knocked at their hearts, as willing to have kindled some holy desires in them. How else can they be said to resist the Holy Ghost, but that the Spirit was readier to draw them to a further degree of goodness than was consistent with their own wills? Therefore those in the church that are damned are self condemned before. So that here we need not rise to higher causes, when men carry sufficient cause in their own bosoms.

Harsh words? Yes, they are. But necessarily so.