Article 10: Response & Eternal Destiny

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning unbelievers to eternal separation from Him, and believers to eternal peace in His presence with restored relationships to God, renewed creation, and one another in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace.

Response to God's gospel determines the eternal destiny of every person.

Statement of Faith - Commentary

(This commentary is based on a book, entitled Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America. The exposition I have adapted from that book is shorter and re-drafted to fit the Statement of Faith we are proposing at LAC. I am thankful to my theologian friends—Mike Andrus, Bill Jones, Bill Kynes, David Martin, Ruben Martinez, and Greg Strand—both for the work together and for the opportunity to post this material. Though many contributed to the commentary, the writing was done mainly by Dr. Greg Strand and Dr. Bill Kynes. Your pastor accepts responsibility both for the abridging and for the re-focusing of the commentary now being made available to us.)

The LAC SOF is centered on the gospel, God’s gospel. And what is the gospel? It is the evangel, the good news that can be stated as concisely as this: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16–17). Our Statement seeks to unpack this gospel by organizing the essential doctrines of our faith, our essential faith convictions, around this central theme. Our final article brings the entire document to a fitting conclusion.

The gospel, and our SOF, begins with God and his saving purpose, which flows out of the wondrous perfections of his nature. He is the creator of all things and is holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This one God, all-knowing and all-powerful, has, in love and grace, purposed from eternity to redeem a people for himself and to restore his fallen creation for his own glory.

But how do we know this good news? We know it only because God himself has revealed it to us. Our second Article affirms that God’s gospel is authoritatively announced in the Scriptures.Through the words of its human authors, God has spoken truthfully and authoritatively in his Word, the Bible. Therefore, the Bible is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

This gospel revealed in the Bible is important to us because it alone addresses our deepest human need. Our central problem is not a lack of education, inadequate healthcare, or a terrorist threat. It is our alienation from God. We have sinned, all of us, beginning with our first ancestors. We are fallen in our nature before we take our first breath. By our own volition, we go our own way in defiance of God’s rightful rule, refusing to allow God to be God in our lives. As a result, we now stand under his wrath, and we can be rescued, reconciled, and restored only through God’s gracious work in Jesus Christ.

In the person of Jesus Christ, the gospel is revealed in history. Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man. He was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He was buried, arose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of God the Father, he is now our high priest and advocate.

God’s gospel is not only revealed in Jesus Christ; it is also accomplished through his work. For when he died on the cross, Jesus acted as our representative and substitute as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. He was raised from the dead as a foretaste of his victory over all forces of sin and death.

What Jesus did then, two thousand years ago, is now applied to our lives by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit glorifies Christ as he works within us to convict us of our guilt and grant us new spiritual life as we are born again into a new union with Christ. We are joined to him in his death and resurrection. The indwelling Holy Spirit now empowers us to live in a new way so that we might become like Christ.

When we are joined to Christ by faith, we become a part of a new family, the family of God, and we become a part of a new body, the body of Christ. God’s gospel is now embodied in a new community, the church, which is manifested in local churches. In the fellowship of the church and through its ordinances, we grow to become complete in Christ.

In the grace of the gospel, God justifies us, accepting us just as we are. But in his grace, he does not leave us just as we are. This gospel also changes us; it sanctifies us, compelling us toChrist-like living and witness to the world. We are to grow in our love for God and for other people, created in his image. We are to show the same compassion we received toward others in need. We are to do battle with the forces of evil in this world in fellowship with one another and in dependence on him, using all of the resources he has given us. And in all that we do, in word and deed, we are to bear witness to this glorious gospel among all people.

We believe that one day God will bring his saving purpose in the gospel to fulfillment when Jesus Christ comes in glory to establish his kingdom fully and completely. Jesus Christ is coming again, and that is our blessed hope—a hope that spurs us on to remain faithful to our Lord to the end.

This is the gospel—God’s saving purpose in Jesus Christ. We might well ask, does the saving work of Christ apply to everyone whether they want it to or not? Is everybody automatically forgiven and reconciled to God simply because Jesus died and rose again? Will everyone be saved in the end?

And what does it mean to be saved? Doesn’t it mean that we are rescued from the self-centeredness of our sin and brought into a relationship with God in which he is worshiped and adored and given all glory and honor? Do all people really want this kind of salvation? They may want to be free from pain or sickness or death, but do they really want to enter into a realm in which God rules supreme? Would God force such people into his kingdom against their will?

I. God’s Gospel Requires a Response

The gospel is a declaration of what God has done to rescue us, but it does not benefit us whether we want it to or not. No, God’s gospel requires a response. The gospel certainly proclaims something God accomplished outside of us, without our help, but God’s saving work is not effective apart from our personal involvement. In any biblical understanding of the gospel, the objective work of God in Christ requires a subjective response, a response of faith.[1] We are called—indeed, we are commanded—to believe the gospel. By faith in Christ, and by faith alone, this gospel becomes ours. By faith we become recipients of God’s saving work.

A. God Commands Us to Respond

The gospel message comes to us as a declaration of fact. God acted to save us through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. But that declaration also issues in a command: we must repent and believe that good news. The New Testament presents the gospel not simply as a helpful suggestion to implement or even an invitation to accept, but as a command to obey (cf. 2 Thess. 1:8; Rom. 10:16; also Acts 5:32; 6:7; 17:30; Rom. 6:17; Heb. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:22; 4:17). The proper response to this command, however, is faith, the sole means of receiving God’s saving grace (cf. John 6:29).

B. The Gospel Addresses Everyone Everywhere

In reference to the Athenians’ altar to “an unknown god,” the Apostle Paul declared to the pagan philosophers of Mars Hill, “In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). The call of the gospel message is not limited to Jews or even to God-fearing Gentiles. It is universal in its scope, addressing everyone everywhere. Jesus authorized this world-wide reach of the gospel when he commissioned his followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19; cf. also Luke 24:46–47), acting as his witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Book of Acts documents the extension of the gospel from the Jews of Jerusalem (Acts 2), to the Samaritans (Acts 8), and finally to the Gentile world (Acts 10). The gospel “is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Rom. 1:16).

Regardless of the various views on the nature of God’s election, we affirm that it is not within our power to know who will respond to the gospel. We do know, however, that Christ has purchased people for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). Therefore, we are to proclaim the good news of God’s saving grace far and wide, calling everyone everywhere to respond. We now turn to look more closely at the response the gospel requires.

C. We Are to Believe the Gospel

The one essential response to which we are called is faith. We are to believe in Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the gospel. The notion of faith, however, is often misunderstood. One skeptic described faith as “the illogical belief in the occurrence of the impossible.” Others see it as a vague positive attitude toward life, a form of “positive thinking.” But in the Bible, there is a connection made between faith and truth. Paul spoke, for example, of the Colossians’ faith in “the word of truth, the gospel,” that had come to them (Col. 1:5). This gospel, he said, was bearing fruit in them since the day they heard of it and “understood God’s grace in all its truth” (v. 6). Faith is not just a feeling; it involves an understanding of truth.[2] Faith has content; it is faith in something.

1) To believe, in a biblical sense, we must first understand the content of the gospel. This first aspect of faith consists of the notions, ideas, and conceptions that are to be believed. The early Christians sometimes called this “the faith.” By this, they meant the essential doctrines of the gospel taught in the Bible. Paul spoke of the content of our faith in a passage like 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (cf. also, e.g., 1 Tim. 3:9; 4:6; Titus 1:13). In this sense, faith involves knowledge. We must know who Christ is and what he has done before we can believe in him. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

2) A second aspect of biblical faith is that we must not only understand the message; we must assent to it. To believe, in a biblical sense, we must come to a conviction about the truth of the gospel. Is there truly a God who created the universe? Did he really enter into our world in Jesus Christ? Did Jesus actually die on a cross for our sins? And did he rise from the dead? Is it true? Biblical faith involves an understanding of certain content—a body of claims about reality—and it involves a conviction about the truth of those claims.

3) But these two dimensions of faith are not enough. Understanding the message is crucial, believing that it is true is essential, but without a third dimension, that faith is still deficient. James spoke of such faith as merely the faith of demons (cf. James 2:19). Faith, to be real, must pass from understanding, and even conviction, to personal commitment. This third dimension of faith is that Christian faith requires a personal element of trust, reliance, and allegiance.

Consider the analogy of marriage. Two people may be attracted to one another and may get to know the content of each other’s character. They may become convinced that they would make good marriage partners. But marriage requires more than that. One’s faith must be put on the line; they must make a commitment to one another—a very personal commitment. Real faith comes only when they forsake all others and say “I do.” For that reason, the marriage vow has often been called “a pledge of faith.” The gospel calls us to make just such a “pledge of faith” to Jesus Christ. Such faith unites us to Christ, and in that union his saving work flows into our lives. Faith is not our contribution to the saving work of God any more than accepting a marriage proposal earns the love of the one who proposes. Faith is simply the means of receiving God’s saving grace in Christ.

God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel, and our Statement expounds what this believing means in two ways: it is both moral and personal.

1. We Are to Turn to God in Repentance

First, believing the gospel entails turning to God in repentance. Repentance is not something that is done in addition to faith, as if it were some human work that merits God’s favor. It is an inherent part of what it means to believe the gospel, for it reflects the moral reality the gospel declares.

The gospel message has meaning only within a moral framework. It assumes that God has the right to command our obedience and that we have rebelled against his authority. We are now sinners before God in need of a Savior. To believe the gospel, one must agree with this basic truth. Faith in Christ implies that a person no longer wants to remain in this state of rebellion but desires rescue from sin and reconciliation with God. Repentance is simply a description of that “change of mind” intrinsic to this turning toward God. It is recognition of the moral order that God established, and repentance is a desire to align oneself within that order (cf. 1 Thess. 1:8–10). Turning toward God implies turning away from sin.

Our repentance does not save us. Faith is the sole means of receiving God’s grace. Faith is what joins us to Christ and enables us to enjoy his riches. Repentance can be understood as a logical prerequisite of faith, putting faith within the moral context in which it must be understood.

Repentance was a prominent theme of Jesus’ preaching. Mark introduced Jesus’ message in this way: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14–15; cf. also Matt. 11:20–21; 12:41; Luke 13:3, 5, 7; 16:30). And after his resurrection, Jesus instructed his disciples “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46–47).

Peter echoed that emphasis on the day of Pentecost, closing his first sermon with this appeal: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38; cf. also 2 Pet. 3:9).Paul also emphasized the need for repentance, summarizing his message this way: “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21). And again, “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20; cf. also 3:19; 14:15; 17:30; 26:17–18; Rom. 2:4; 2 Cor. 7:10; Isa. 55:6–7). We are saved by faith alone, but true faith includes repentance.

Repentance is a turning away from sin, but we must be clear. This turning from sin must be a desire of the heart, but it does not mean that our lives must be without sin before we can put our faith in Christ. The requirement of repentance simply means that one desires both to be rescued from one’s sin by God’s power and to submit to God’s authority, however weak that desire may be. People may come to God for many reasons, but if they do not acknowledge their moral obligation to love and obey God and if they do not embrace Jesus Christ as God’s gracious provision for their failure to fulfill that obligation, then they have not rightly understood the gospel. Believing the gospel means, first, turning toward God in repentance.[3]

2. We Are to Receive the Lord Jesus Christ

A second aspect of believing the gospel is found in the phrase “receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we emphasize the personal nature of faith. The gospel is not just a set of facts to be believed (though, as we have said, the content of our faith is important); it is also a person to be trusted. When Jesus Christ came into the world, he was largely rejected by his own people, but John writes, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12; cf. also Col. 2:6). The personal nature of our response is such that Paul can speak of “knowing Christ my Lord” (Phil. 3:8) and of Christ living “in us” (Col. 1:27). This language of “receiving Christ” also expresses the divine initiative in this relationship—i.e., God gives, and we can only receive (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7; Rom. 5:17).[4]

Further, we affirm that the one whom we receive not only saves us from our sin; he is also the ruler of the universe. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, the one who is now on the throne at the right hand of the Father. “Jesus is Lord” is the affirmation that rings from the heart of the believer (Rom. 10:8–13; 1 Cor. 12:3), and it gives us hope in the efficacy of his work and in his power to save.[5]

Jesus said, “Come, follow me” (e.g., Matt. 4:19). The Lord calls, and we must personally respond to that call in an act of faith, entrusting our lives into his care...just as in marriage, faith becomes real only when you actually commit yourself to the other person. So, in our relationship with Christ, our faith becomes real when we receive him—personally committing our lives to him in faith.[6]

II. Our Eternal Destiny

The gospel is not simply a self-help strategy for finding peace and happiness in this life. The Bible presents the gospel as a matter of eternal significance. In fact, it is a matter of heaven and hell, for our eternal destiny hinges on our response to Jesus Christ (cf. John 3:36; 5:24; 8:24).

Jesus himself spoke in stark terms of the two ways set before every human being. “‘Enter through the narrow gate,’ he said. ‘For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it’” (Matt. 7:13–14). Or “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, . . . he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. . . . and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left” (Matt. 25:31–33). One is either on a road to life or on a road to death, among the sheep or among the goats, a believer or an unbeliever. There is no middle ground.

The theological truths set forth throughout our SOF concerning God’s nature, the human condition, the person and work of Christ, the missionary mandate given to all believers, and the need for a response of repentance and faith naturally raise two common questions, which we must pause to address before proceeding. First, what is the destiny of those who die in infancy or who may be mentally incompetent and unable to respond to the message of the gospel in conscious faith? Believers have differed on this issue. Almost all contend that God can accept such people into his eternal presence (simply because he is God and may find ways we could never imagine to act in keeping with both his love and justice), though the grounds on which this is possible differ. Some believe that even though all are sinful by nature in Adam, those who die in infancy or who may be mentally incompetent are incapable of conscious and deliberate sin, and, therefore, their sinful nature has not been personally ratified. Consequently, Adam’s guilt is not attributed to them.[7] (All, however, would agree that both infants and the mentally incompetent are still subject to a corruption of nature flowing from the fall and that Christ’s saving work of restoration is still necessary.) Others believe that though all humans at any stage of development or level of mental capability are guilty by virtue of their union with Adam, God can apply the saving work of Christ to them without conscious and deliberate faith through the regenerating work of the Spirit.[8] Even if this is true, how many God may choose to save in this way, we could not know. This is God’s role. Still, we do have confidence that God is gracious, especially to those who are the weakest and most vulnerable.[9]

Second, we ask, what then is the destiny of those who have not heard of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ, i.e., the unevangelized? Can they be saved? Since the coming of God’s final work in Jesus Christ, Scripture speaks clearly of the need to hear and to believe the gospel (cf. Rom. 10:13–15; Acts 4:12; John 14:6; Luke 24:46–47; Acts 26:16–18). And among those capable of understanding the gospel, we affirm that we have no clear biblical warrant for believing that, since the coming of Christ, God has saved anyone apart from conscious faith in Jesus.[10] Paul’s statement referring to the Christian Ephesians’ previous state as pagans without a faith in Jesus is straightforward and comprehensive: “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Further, we find nothing in Scripture that suggests that the nations may find God somehow present in a redemptive way within their own religious practices, theological outlooks, or cultural structures.

And again, while God could reveal Christ to some apart from the normal means of the ministry of the Word (e.g., through dreams or visions[11]), we have no biblical warrant for believing that he has promised to do this or is obligated in that way to anyone.[12] The Bible speaks instead of the mandate given to Christ’s followers to preach the gospel to all nations (cf., esp. Rom. 10:14–15), and we are woefully remiss if we fail to engage in that great task when so much is at stake.

There is, in many believers, what has been called a “benevolent impulse” that desires and seeks eternal life for as many as possible, and this impulse is good and right. This impulse is sometimes seen in Scripture. Abraham pleaded with God for the salvation of the city of Sodom (Gen. 18:23–24). That benevolence was also seen in Jesus. In Luke 9:54–55, Jesus’ disciples were rebuked for being more zealous to punish evildoers than their Lord. As we humbly consider this question of the unevangelized, we are confident that God’s ways are always both just and loving, and in the end, they will be seen to be so. As Abraham reflected, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25) At the same time, we must remain faithful to the clear and insistent message of the Bible: Jesus Christ is the savior of the whole world, and the whole world needs to hear about his saving work.[13] Because all have sinned and are deserving of God’s condemnation, we believe that we can be saved only by the atoning work of Christ, and we believe that we can be sure that people can be saved by that work only if they are told about it. Throughout eternity, we will see that God is both just in punishing sin and loving toward sinners. God alone knows the specifics of how both of those qualities will be seen in his dealings with each individual.

A. God Will Raise the Dead Bodily

The eternal nature of our destiny is affirmed in our conviction that physical death is not the end of our existence. Our lives are not simply absorbed as a drop into “the eternal ocean of being,” nor do we simply “live on in the hearts of those we love,” as many suppose. The Bible affirms that every human being will assume an eternal form in which we maintain our unique personal and bodily existence. This is described as our resurrection from the dead.

In the Old Testament, the doctrine of the resurrection was most clearly articulated in the Book of Daniel: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2; cf. also Job. 19:25–27; Isa. 26:19). Jesus, too, affirmed that all will rise from the dead: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear [the Son’s] voice and come out —those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28–29; also Matt. 22:23–32). Paul echoed this conviction: “there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked” (Acts 24:15).

The nature of the resurrection body is a great mystery, and Paul’s teaching on the subject focused on the new bodies of those united to Christ, leaving us with less clarity regarding those raised apart from Christ. For believers, the resurrection body will be like Jesus’ (Phil. 3:20–21), with a significant physical discontinuity with our present body of flesh (cf. 1 Cor. 15:50) but maintaining a continuity of personal identity. Paul used the image of a seed that is buried and then re-emerges from the ground in a new form, becoming a “spiritual body,” glorious and imperishable (1 Cor. 15:35–49).

The Bible describes our future state as the resurrection of the body rather than simply the immortality of the soul. This recognizes that God the creator is not abandoning his creation but redeeming it. In addition, as bodily creatures, we will maintain our ability to represent God in his redeemed created order, displaying his glory. Though death cannot separate the believer from Christ (Rom. 8:38–39), and after death we can be assured of being in his presence (cf. Phil. 1:21–23),[14] our salvation will not be complete until we are raised bodily when Christ returns.[15] Human beings are created as embodied souls, and Christ’s own incarnation demonstrates the dignity of our embodied existence. Our future bodily resurrection further affirms this reality.

Physical death is not the end of our existence, for all human beings will be raised bodily.[16] Yet physical death does mark the end of our ability to make a response to God in faith. At death, our eternal destiny is fixed for, as we read in Hebrews, “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Heb. 9:27; cf. also Luke 16:26).

B. God Will Judge the World

Though God sometimes acts in judgment in the course of human history, the Bible affirms that there will come a day when he will act to judge the world in what we call the last or final judgment.[17] Paul stated it clearly to the Athenians: God “commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice” (Acts 17:30–31). Jesus spoke frequently of this “day of judgment”: “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done” (Matt. 16:27; cf. 10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:36, 41–42; 25:31–32).[18] We are assured that this judgment will be perfectly just (cf. Gen. 18:25; Ps. 145:17; Acts 17:31; Rom. 2:11), for nothing will be hidden and all will be made known (Heb. 4:13; Rom. 2:16; 1 Cor. 4:5).

The prospect of divine judgment is certainly mortifying, but we must appreciate the broader significance of our ultimate accountability to God. First, far from degrading us, God’s judgment actually gives great dignity to our lives. God treats us as responsible moral agents, unlike all other earthly creatures, conferring value to our choices by bringing them before his bar of judgment. If we are not held accountable for our actions, why not eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die? But because we will be judged by God, our choices have eternal consequences.

Second, the judgment of God is necessary for the existence of a real moral order in the universe. It provides the ultimate sanction that underlies all moral demands, without which lawbreakers would go unpunished. In an age of moral relativism, the judgment of God provides the absolute objective standard to which all other moral judgments must conform.

Further, the judgment of God is necessary if divine goodness is to be victorious over evil. Because God will judge the world, his will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, justice will prevail, and the good will be seen to be good, finally and fully. Judgment brings glory to God by displaying his holy nature.

God will judge the world, and that reality gives meaning to all that we do in this life. It provides an assurance that no good will go unrewarded (cf. Matt. 10:42) and no evil will be left unpunished (cf. Matt. 12:36), and it gives us the hope that righteousness will rule in the kingdom of God (2 Pet. 3:13).

The Bible affirms that each person will be judged “according to what he has done” (Rev. 20:13; Matt. 16:27; Rom. 2:6; 2 Cor. 5:10). In light of what we have already declared concerning the universality of sin,[19] such a standard might lead us to despair. But the Bible makes it clear that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), for Jesus has taken our judgment upon himself (cf. Rom. 3:21–26).[20] This judgment “according to works” will really be a judgment about faith—faith as attested to by the fruit of our lives. That is, our works will not be the basis of our salvation but the evidence of our faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who alone can save.

The Book of Revelation speaks of “the dead, both great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. . . . The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (Rev. 20:12). But if we are left to the justice of God, who of us could stand? But the good news is that John says another book will be opened. He calls it “the book of life” (20:12). In the ancient world, the names of the citizens of a city were written on a scroll. So, the names written in this book are those who are citizens of heaven, the people of God. Later, John called it the “Lamb’s book of life” (21:27). It inscribes the names of those who have looked in faith to the lamb who was slain as their savior (cf. 7:14; 13:8). Though people are judged according to their deeds, they are saved according to God’s grace. Only those whose names are written in this book will enter the Holy City. Our faith in Christ alone provides the basis for our names’ being written there.

The judgment of God will result in a great separation, for there are but two roads on which all people are traveling—which lead to but two destinations (Matt. 7:13–14). On that day, the judge will separate the sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32). Some will enter into the Holy City, and some will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15; 21:27). We turn now to consider these two final destinies.

1. The Destiny of the Unbeliever: Eternal Separation from God

It is Jesus above all who forces us to affirm the dreadful truth that those who stand alone before God as sinners on the day of judgment will face condemnation into a state of eternal separation from God.[21] To the religious hypocrites, he declared, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matt. 23:33) Those rejected as subjects of the kingdom, Jesus said, “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12; cf. 13:42, 50; 22:13; 25:30). Stressing the seriousness of sin, Jesus urged, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out”(Mark 9:43; cf. Matt. 18:8). On that day of judgment, those who failed to respond to Jesus in saving faith “will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life”(Matt. 25:46). We cannot be faithful to our Lord and not speak of this stark reality. Though it is often ridiculed as a primitive remnant of a medieval age, this doctrine of eternal punishment of sinners is rooted in the teaching of Jesus himself.

The apostolic witness of the New Testament echoes Jesus’ weighty words on this topic. Paul speaks of a time of “wrath and anger” awaiting those who reject the truth (Rom. 2:8). Those who do not obey the gospel “will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord” (1 Thess. 1:9). Jude offered the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah “as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).

With our meager understanding of the utter purity of God’s holiness and his absolute abhorrence of evil, we may find it difficult to conceive of such punishment, but it is real, and only God’s grace can rescue us from it.

The Bible offers various images to seek to convey something of the nature of hell’s terror. First, hell is pictured as a place of burning fire, emphasizing its physical torment (Mark 9:43, 48; Jude 7; cf. Rev. 21:8—“a fiery lake of burning sulfur”). Second, hell is described as a place of darkness—“outer darkness” (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30) or “blackest darkness” (2 Pet. 2:17; Jude 13), emphasizing banishment from God’s presence (1 Thess. 1:9). In some of the most dreaded words of the Bible, Jesus said to evildoers who assumed that they would be welcomed by him, “Depart from me. I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23). Finally, hell is characterized by death and destruction. John in the Revelation referred to the lake of fire as “the second death” (Rev. 20:14; 21:8; cf. 2:11; 20:6). Destruction is where the wide road leads (Matt. 7:13); it is what happens to the house built on sand (Luke 6:49); it is what is prepared for the objects of God’s wrath (Rom. 9:22); and it is the destiny of the enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:19).

Some, especially in recent years, have taken this language of death and destruction in a more literal sense and argue that though God’s punishment of the wicked is real, it is not eternal. This view, known as “annihilationism” (or “conditional immortality”[22]), holds that the unrighteous will cease to exist after they are judged. In this sense, the punishment for sin is eternal in its effect (that is, it is irreversible), but not eternal in the experience of the one judged. Although we contend that gospel-centered believers may disagree about this issue and still maintain fellowship, we also believe that the weight of Scripture teaches that human beings will not be annihilated but will experience a conscious eternity either with God or separated from him.

Hell may be understood as a culmination of the effects of sin and the confirmation of God’s opposition to it. It is both the inexorable result of human choice and the active and deliberate judgment of God. God is just, and the judge of all the earth shall do what is right—of that we can be absolutely certain. One day, his glory will be wonderfully displayed even in his judgment. Until then, compassion toward those traveling on that road to destruction[23] must compel us to reach out in love with the good news of God’s means of rescue and new life in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. The Destiny of the Believer:

a. Eternal Peace in God’s Presence

If the biblical language depicting the eternal state of the unbeliever is as bad as it can be, the language regarding the future for the believer is better than can be imagined. Where once we were alienated from God as his enemies and banished from his presence, we shall be with him forever. Where once we suffered the painful consequences of God’s wrath in this fallen world, we will be filled with an inexpressible joy. And where once we experienced the corruption of sin resulting in death, we shall enjoy a state of eternal peace (shalom), fully pleasing to God in a restored, and even glorified, state of righteousness.

Heaven is the place where God dwells,[24] where his presence is manifest, and its contrast with hell could not be more complete. Hell is a place of pain and suffering; heaven will be one of unceasing joy, like that of a wedding banquet (Rev. 19:7; Matt. 22:2; 25:1–13). Hell is a place of destruction and death; heaven will be one of everlasting life. Hell is a place of darkness and lonely despair; heaven will be one of glorious light and overwhelming love. There “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43). It will have no need of sun or moon to illumine it, for “the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23; also 22:5). It will be a place of unimaginable splendor, greatness, excellence, and beauty, as that New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven, is pictured as a place of pure gold and decorated with precious jewels (Rev. 21:18–21).

b. In the New Heaven and the New Earth

We often speak of heaven as the destiny of the believer, and that way of speaking is not wrong. As those united with Christ, we know that nothing, not even death, can separate us from our savior (Rom. 8:38–39), and that when we die we will “depart and be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23), who is himself seated in heavenly glory. But the redemptive purposes of God are greater still. As we have seen,[25] our salvation will not be complete until our bodies are resurrected and we share the glory of Christ when he returns triumphantly to this earth (cf. Phil. 3:21). And the Bible declares that his victory over sin and death will be so complete that his return will result in the transformation of the creation itself[26]—making all things new (Rev. 21:5). God will restore his people and overcome the effects of sin in this fallen world, bringing about a new heaven and new earth in which the separation that now exists between heaven and earth will be overcome (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1–4; Rom. 8:21–23; also Isa. 65:17–25; 66:22–23). In that Holy City, the New Jerusalem, “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. . . . There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:2–4).[27]

Evil will have no place in this new existence. In that Holy City John envisioned, “nothing that is impure will enter” (Rev 21:27). We will be secure in “the city with permanent foundations,” a “kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Heb. 11:10; 12:28). The curse of God upon life in this world will be rescinded (Rev. 22:3), and our work will no longer be toilsome. We will discover the true Sabbath rest of God, even as we actively serve the lamb upon the throne (Rev. 22:3), reigning over God’s created order (Rev. 22:5; cf. Gen. 1:28). The communal life of God’s people will be like a great banquet or wedding feast where God himself is the host (cf. Matt. 22:1–10). As Augustine wrote at the conclusion of his magisterial treatise City of God: “On that day we shall rest and we shall see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise; this is what will be at the end without end.”[28]

III. God’s Final Purpose: To the Praise of His Glorious Grace

When God’s saving purposes have been fulfilled and his people are redeemed, reconciled, and restored in the transformed creation, they will gather in joyful celebration and adoration as a great multitude that no one can count. Coming from every nation, tribe, people, and language, they will stand before the throne and in front of the lamb and exclaim: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:10). Because salvation is all a gift of God’s grace, no one will have cause to boast and God alone will be exalted. The unfolding of God’s saving purpose in the gospel of Jesus Christ will be “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1:6).

IV. Our Final Response: Amen

All theology, because it is truth about God, is to be doxological, a prayerful profession, a joyful declaration, an act of worship. In the end, all that we can do is offer our hearty and heart-felt affirmation of God’s glorious gospel revealed in Jesus Christ—So be it! We began our Statement by declaring that in all that God does, he acts “for His own glory” (Article 1). We now close with the word with which the Bible ends itself: Amen.

To God's glory alone,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor