3 Day Bible Reading Plan: “How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?”
How can a loving God send people to Hell? There is a simple answer to this question, but it doesn’t resolve the tension behind it. The simple answer is that we are guilty of sins that require a just God to punish. God would not be just if He let evil go unpunished. - Pastor Paul Crandell, 7/14/24
Day 1
Featured Verse: Matthew 25:31-46 - “The Sheep and the Goats Judgment”=
Cross References:
Proverbs 19:17 - “Whoever is Generous to the Poor Lends to the Lord”
Proverbs 14:31 - “Whoever Oppresses a Poor Man Insults His Maker”
Hebrews 10:30-31 - “It is a Fearful Thing to Fall Into the Hands of the Living God”
Reflection:
1 John 4:20 has some harsh words for those who say they love God, yet hate their brother. The Apostle John calls them liars. Why?
Matthew 7:22-23 has another scene of Judgment, the “Lord, Lord!” crowd. Notice all the “good works” they claim, yet Christ casts them away. “I never knew you.” What does this mean? Why do you think the Lord cast them away if they seemed to have the good works of the sheep?
There is an interesting contrast between Heaven and Hell in the Sheep and Goats Judgment. Matthew 25:34 says the kingdom was “prepared” for the sheep, those blessed by the Father. Yet Matthew 25:41 records Hell was prepared for “the devil and his angels.” Not only is Hell separation from God and all that is good, it is the final eternal torment of demons and Satan as well. With this in mind, what are some reasons as to why it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God? (Hebrews 10:30-31)
“Unconverted men walk over the pit of Hell on a rotten covering!…The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow…There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of Hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” - Jonathan Edwards
Day 2
Featured Verse: Matthew 10:40 - “Whoever Receives You Receives Me”
Cross References:
John 13:20 - “Whoever Receives the One I Send Receives Me”
Luke 10:16 - “The One Who Hears You Hears Me, and the One Who Rejects You Rejects Me”
Galatians 4:14 - “Though My Condition Was a Trial to You…You Received Me…as Christ Jesus”
Reflection:
Why does Christ so closely identify with His children that He considers what is done to them as done to Him?
Take a moment and consider the weight of what Christ is telling us in our passages today. You bring God with you into every peaceful scenario—and into every persecution. If someone rejects you for Christ’s sake, they also reject both Christ and the Father. Vengeance belongs to God because the sin, though against you, was ultimately against Him.
The Apostle Paul had some physical malady that was a trial to the Galatians, yet they received him as Christ. The Lord expects us to take special care of those who are weak in body. It is easy to welcome a brother or sister if they are able and strong, for they can take care of themselves, but how might you care for another if they are weak, infirm, or disabled? How might you receive them as Christ though their condition be a trial to you?
“Our union with Christ is not only lasting, it is everlasting. With great boldness we utter the challenge. ‘Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?’ It is true that we hold Christ, and that we will hold Him tighter still; but the greater mercy is that He holds us, and He will never let us go.” - Charles Spurgeon
Day 3
Featured Verse: 1 John 4:7-12 - “Let Us Love One Another, For Love is From God”
Cross References:
1 John 4:19 - “We Love Because He First Loved Us”
1 John 2:29 - “Everyone Who Practices Righteousness Has Been Born of Him”
Hebrews 6:10 - “God is Not Unjust to Overlook Your Work and Love…in Serving the Saints”
Reflection:
Love initiates and love nurtures. Love is its own seed, and it reaps what it sows. When was the last time you intentionally loved someone in the family of God?
“Practice” assumes a habit, something someone faithfully does again and again. Anyone can seem righteous by doing good deeds every now and then, but habitual righteousness is the trait of a true Christian. What does it look like to “practice righteousness”?
James 1:27 says religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. This one verse encompasses both good works and practicing righteousness in a Christian’s life. How might you keep your religion “pure and undefiled before God”?
“Periodical godliness is perpetual hypocrisy.” - Charles Spurgeon
“A blush of godliness is not enough to distinguish a Christian, but godliness must be the temper and complexion of the soul.” - Thomas Watson