Revelation 14:11 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Revelation 14:11

Comments

For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion. ⁹ Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch. ¹⁰ It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever (Isaiah 34:8-10).Hell burns like a great furnace. It bellows out smoke from its mouth indicating something of the terrible suffering of those within its inescapable vaults. It is a place of destruction like a great bonfire for burning rubbish. The name for hell in Greek is ‘Gehenna’. Strong says, ‘This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction’. Just as heaven will never cease to exist, so hell will never cease to exist. As long as the righteous dwell in heaven, they will see the smoke of hell ascend. The smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and therefore the wicked do not cease to be punished throughout eternity. But how tragic that those who once had the same sun over their heads and the same deep blue skies above them, who could see and hear the beauty of creation should respond to the gospel in such different ways. They too lived in God’s created world and enjoyed his same favours for a time. Is this fair? Grace owes no favours to anyone, nor is it vulnerable to criticism that it is partial in its gifts. It is the nature of grace to be partial. But that partiality is based on something wholly outside of the recipient.The wicked have no rest. Who can say what terrors are conveyed in this brief sentence? They have no rest; they have no hope of rest. Their situation will never improve. They have no rest from their own works by being brought into a justified state and they have no rest from the terror of knowing that God is their eternal incorrigible enemy. They can never find rest in the love of Christ. They can never find rest from their endless punishment.

Application

If we ask what determines where we spend eternity, the only answer Scripture gives is the electing love of God. No good works of ours, no turning to God, no exercise of faith in Christ, none of these are the ultimate cause of our deliverance. All these things must be present but that are all ultimately the effects not the cause of election. They are all the gifts of God who has already determined to love us. Knowing these things we view the smoke ascending from hell with awe. We do not say, ‘I am not there because I had the good sense to believe in Christ, while those others continued in their stubbornness’. Instead we say, ‘He alone knows why I am not there. He has done everything to deliver me from that place. He saw what would happen to me and he intervened. In myself there is nothing any different to those who have gone to that place. What an amazing difference the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has made to my life!’ There is of course an asymmetry between those who perish in hell and those who go to heaven. The first are there by the law while the second are delivered by grace. The first are there because they are being punished for their sins. The second are in heaven in spite of their sins. The first are there because of what they have done, the second are with Christ because of what someone else has done.

Are we happy that our eternal security should rest on something outside of ourselves? Does this make us feel uncomfortable? There is no other way it can be. We need not fear, for though the choices of God are a mystery to us, they are unchangeable choices. Not all the waywardness that follows conversion can put him off or cause him to cease to love us. Are we happy to accept his love when we know that he saw nothing in us to deserve that love? It is not for us to say why another should love us.

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Revelation 14:11 Commentary and Bible Study