“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 1:7)
In Scripture, the torments of the damned are described with such horrifying words that it is a wonder they do not impress fear and terror on the most daring sinner. For example, the Apostle Jude describes hell as, “the vengeance of eternal fire, and the blackness of darkness forever,” (Jude 7, 13). The Apostle John calls it, “a lake of fire and brimstone,” (Rev. 20:10, 15). And our Savior emphatically describes it as “a fire that can never be quenched, where the worm dies not,” (Mark 9:46). All these phrases express the utter severity and intolerable nature of these torments. For what pain is more excruciating than that of fire? And to what degree does it intensify the misery in that this punishment is eternal? And yet such descriptions only begin to reveal the wrath that an offended God will execute and inflict upon sinners.
Those who reject the Gospel of Christ, choosing instead to revel in a life of sin and wickedness, should give serious consideration to their decision to suffer the pain and horror of burning forever in a lake of fire rather than trusting Christ for salvation. Can the temporary pleasures of sin really be worth the consequences of such unbearable, eternal torture? As Paul asked the Galatians, “Unwise sinners, who has bewitched you?” (Gal. 3:1).
How can anyone spurn the depths of divine love and mercy that only God can extend to the lowest sinner? Surely, if those who despised Moses’ law died without mercy, how much graver punishment should befall those who disregard the Son of God and the dear price he paid to procure our salvation? (Heb. 10:28-29).
Richard Allestree said, “God knows how much in need men stand, both of arguments to work upon their hope and fear and to excite them to duty. And since he who knows our natures has used promises to allure us and threatenings to awaken us, we must not pretend to be wiser than God and reject those motives he has thought fit to prescribe. And indeed, if it were not for the fear of evil and the hope of good, it is to be feared that the pressing of other motives should be but a mere beating of the air.”[1]
Our blessed Lord paid the price required to rescue us from captivity by offering himself as the substitutionary sacrifice to satisfy divine justice – so that we might walk in newness of life and escape the eternal torment of the damned. In light of such a powerful truth, how can so many prefer sin’s bondage to freedom in Christ… and how can so much madness reside in the hearts of any whom God breathed the breath of life!
Contemplations:
- The deluge of God’s wrath will drown all wicked men and angels in everlasting destruction and perdition for gratifying (and drowning themselves in) their own foolish and base lusts (1 Tim. 6:9).
- The one who rejects God’s offer of salvation does not know when, or how, this judgment and torment shall be brought on him. For it will be as the prophet declares, destruction and desolation “shall come upon him suddenly, which he shall not know,” (Isa. 47:11). And at that point he will forever be subject to God’s unrelenting and irreversible wrath.
- A sinner’s days on the earth are fought under Satan’s banner and against God, his saints and truths. He therefore brings the extent of his great eternal misery on his own guilty head, continuing in a state of everlasting bondage and death.
Further References for Jude 1:7:
Deut. 29:23; Matt. 25:41; 2 Peter 2:6; Amos 4:11
[1] Richard Allestree, A Discourse Concerning the Beauty of Holiness (London: J.C., 1679), 90.
