Matthew 13:42 Commentary and Bible Study

These words are spoken by the Saviour of the world, the one who lays down his life for his people, who was moved with pity to come from heaven and strive against sin and the consequences of sin in his people. In him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the God who is love. Yet he does not flinch from speaking of the terrors of hell, and warning every man that the consequences of sin are indeed greatly to be feared. As the tares were bound into bundles and thrown into the fire, so the unrepentant and unbelieving, all those who do iniquity, will be cast into the furnace of fire. Christ said a great deal about the reality of hell, of which this furnace of fire is a metaphor. In this world a furnace burns for a time, and when it has fully consumed what is combustible, the flames cease to burn, but the furnace of which Christ speaks will burn forever. God is pictured in Scripture as reluctant to judge: ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9); ‘Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?’ (Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11). Nevertheless he will not deny himself, and he will not forsake justice. Justice requires the death and eternal punishment of the sinner. The Lord knows perfectly the consequences of sin, for he has himself suffered those consequences for us in order that we could be forgiven. But he did not die for all, and none who finally perish in hell were ever under his blood. Christ’s death for us is always represented as something which infallibly secures our salvation, but to the lost he will say, ‘I never knew you.’‘There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ They weep, not, as Hendriksen says, out of true sorrow for sin, nor for the consequences of their sins on others, nor for dishonour done to God, nor for separation from loved ones. The lost are devoid of all noble feelings, and do not suddenly come good when it is too late. Nor does the Scripture anywhere teach annihilation; the lost are conscious in hell. Christ’s words indicate that they have a memory of their sins and they know what has put them in this terrible place. Their conscience still speaks to them, but they cannot go back and undo what they have done. Hell is a place from which there is no deliverance, and in which there can be no change. Eternity is an intolerable weight for a lost soul. Hope has been cut off and yet the future opens up forever.