I always enjoy finding new combinations of things that
belong together, that I had never considered together before. Sometimes that
happens to me with Scripture. This is called letting Scripture interpret
Scripture, and it’s known to be a good way to interpret the Bible.
When two or three passages are put together, sometimes
they mean more than they did when they were apart. And since “all Scripture is God
breathed, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness,” we can be confident that it’s a legitimate use
of the Bible to use all of it for teaching or correcting our understanding of
God.
For example, consider Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced
that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor
the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
That’s kind of a big statement. It’s basically just a big
list of stuff that cannot separate us from the love of God. There’s a lot of comfort
in those verses.
Recently, two of the items on the list stood out to me:
the first one (“death”) and the last one (“nor anything else in all creation”)
also cannot separate us from the love of God. That’s a big deal.
And as I was reflecting on how we can’t be separated from
God’s love by death or nothing else, another verse drifted through my mind. (It
had my Father’s fingerprints on it.)
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the
murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters
and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This
is the second death.” [Revelation 21:8]
Wait, what? If death can’t separate me from the love of God,
then the second death, the “fiery lake of burning sulfur” cannot separate me
from the love of God.
But wait, there’s more! recently, God has been
speaking to me through John 12:32, so let’s bring that one into the mix. “And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” How many
people is he drawing to himself? It doesn’t say, “I will draw some people,” or “many
people” or “144,000 people” to himself. It says “all.” Whoa.
It also does not say, “I might draw” all people to
himself. It says, “I will draw,” and we studied that word to discover it was
indeed a forceful drawing, like drawing a sword, or drawing a bow, or drawing a
boat up onto the shore. “All” is a big word.
We can certainly argue that the promise of Romans might
be only for believers; I know because I’ve done it, trying to make God
exclusive. But God isn’t terribly exclusive (though his people certainly are),
which makes that application difficult. Possible, but difficult.
And we can certainly argue that the warning of Revelation
only apply to unbelievers; I used to teach that too, though if I’m honest, I
know believers who fit every one of those qualifiers for the fiery lake, which
kind of messes up that argument.
But John’s verse, now that little word “all” throws a
pretty epic wrench in that whole “us vs. them” thinking.
So here’s where this whole line of thinking leads me: if
there are people in the lake of fire, then the love of God is there with them, right
there in the fire with them, doing what the love of God does: drawing people to
Jesus.
That’s an unnerving conclusion. At this point, I cannot
set this down as “What I Believe.” I can’t say that I’m confident this conclusion
is an accurate representation of God (though I’m pretty confident that my
previous beliefs were drivel and malarkey, only suitable for fertilizing the
tomatoes).
All I’m saying is that if the whole Bible is true (and it
is), if all scripture is God breathed (and it is), then I need to consider this
carefully, seriously, in the light of the “whole counsel of God,” [Acts 20:27]
and also in light of “the exact representation of [God’s] nature” [Hebrews
1:3].
My tentative conclusion is that God is not nearly so
interested in smiting as we’ve tended to think he was. No, let me say it
another way: God sure appears to be way more committed to the people he loves,
and I think that might be everybody.
I think I’ve believed too little of him.