This is something I read today that is food for thought.
As Christians, we know that Jesus paid the full penalty for our sin. If the law demanded that the penalty be eternal torment in hellfire, then Jesus would have had to burn in hell forever. He did not do this. The question is: are we yet in our sins? Or did Jesus' DEATH or a mere 3 days pay the penalty in full?
The answer is simple. Jesus was not tormented for eternity, and He did indeed pay the full penalty for sin. Therefore, as Paul said, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), NOT eternal death, NOT hellfire, NOT some other death dreamed up in the imagination of men with which to threaten their enemies. All we need to do is see the example of Jesus to know the full penalty of sin.
In the pain He felt from Gethsemane to His death on the Cross, he paid for our personal sins, going through the "lake of fire" on this earth, even as we do on a smaller scale in the process of purification. In Jesus' actual death for 3 days, He paid for the original sin of Adam, whose penalty was death (Gen. 2:17). It is not our intention to minimize the awful price He paid for sin. It was indeed a terrible price to pay. Yet an ETERNAL penalty is one in which there is NO HOPE of ever paying it in full. But we know that Jesus did pay it in full.
2Cr 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
I'm not sure that Jesus' death represents the "wages" for an unrepentant sinner, but He definitely received the "wages of sin" which the Bible clearly states is "death."
We studied this hell thing years ago when my husband was a pastor. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that there are different greek words for hell. Our English language never seems to quite do justice. There is Hades, Gehenna (sorry about the spelling), etc. There is also the Lake of Fire. But 'death' and 'hell' will be thrown into it. So it says in Revelation. Jesus went down into the depths of the earth, there are different interpretations for that too. THat is a long explanation for another day.
When Jesus hung on that cross and took on him the sins of the world, it would have been spritually VERY dark...all the sins, for the whole world...WOW! It seems to me, the most difficult thing for him was when he said, "ny God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me?" It seems that the torment is more the separation from God than the fire itself. And the fire only comes LATER, AFTER the judgement: WHen death and hell are cast into it...and the DEVIL...THANK GOD!!
We notice, Steven, that you changed the subject from " hell" to "hades"; fine with me. That allows me to make some positive comments from my vantage point.
It seems to me that the teaching of hades (the place of the departed dead) has been overlooked by too many in the Christian community. It is a subject that is avoided at funerals and replaced with instant presence in heaven. However, it clearly is an area that our H brethren have held up and we aught to recognize that. They tend to refer to it as "under the alter of God".
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