God's Righteousness and Holiness in His Justice against Condemned Sinners

There are many passages of scripture that alludes to God’s vengeance upon the wicked. You see this in the fall of man (Genesis 3) and even the flood accounts (Genesis 6). You also see this later in Genesis 11 where God comes down and confuses the people’s language and dispersed them from there. There are examples of God’s righteous Judgment on those who are proud and haughty. There are instances where the Jews for a time had to face God’s judgment (you may read Isaiah and Jeremiah for their warnings).

I say this because when thinking about hell, it is always necessary to think of God’s righteous character and his nature and his relationship to evil and sin. So it is because God is holy and just and good and righteous (Void of anything evil) he must punish sin - Whether I have sinned or even the one in prison or even the guy who has only committed sin once or whether it is God’s people (The Jews) or the gentiles. You may read upon God’s impartiality in Romans 2:11.

The Scriptures say that there will be a day of reckoning, where all men are judged according to what they have done (Romans 2). The Day of Judgment is a day that is unknown to Man (1 Thessalonians 5 – which says that the day will come as a surprise).

Hell is place for those preserved for Judgment due to sin (I know when I was growing up I thought heaven was a place where God resides and hell was the place where Satan resides and I am in the middle of the two powers hoping to be found in heaven when I die. This is actually a false perception of Hell). One particular passage is found in Jude verses 4-7 where we see that it is preserved for not just for men and women who deny the master and Lord, Jesus Christ, but also it is preserved for the angels and demons that fell away as you may see this in Luke 10: 18 which is a verse taken from Isaiah 14:12. You may also read Matthew 25: 41-46. To scripture it is a place of torment as you can read from passages like Luke 16:22-25. The Scripture says that Hell is a place that is full of fire Jude 23 which also tells us that it is real and not just something that is experienced through the mind. So in other words not only as shown from Luke 16 that it is a place of torment (where none of our needs will be met) it is also a place of physical torment.

For those who turn from their sin and turn to Christ however will be saved. The reason is because Christ being God was able to live the righteous lifestyle that we could never do on our own due to (being in Adam and our own sins) and because He was also Man he was able to take the place of sinners (this allures back to the OT sacrifices where the Jews made sacrifices to pacify God’s anger against sins committed that year – Leviticus 16) and rising again three days later proving that God was pleased in His sacrifice. Therefore all who turn to Christ and trust in Him alone who took the wrath of God, may be imputed his righteousness and be saved. (John 3:16-17 – God sent his son so that whoever believes in Him will be saved, Romans 10:1-4 – Christ is the righteousness for those who trust in Him by faith alone, and Romans 5:12-21 – where Christ is said to be the new representative for those who have faith in Him).

Jesus unique person

It is funny how all other world religions had a belief of a God/man but that Jesus Christ was unique as the God/man in that He became humbled and not rich. Although He was full of Grace and wisdom, he was also poor and lowly.

Philippians 2:5-11

Revelation 3:15-22

"'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"

This passage is purely Restorative and not Evangelical.
Christ is restoring those who have fallen into disfellowship with Him by their lack of faith in Christ Jesus alone for their righteousness. There are three dotrines that are taught here: Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. As Justification is rather than believers to come to a point in their life that they view their work as righteous or as having any standing on their own, they should remind themselves continually of the Gospel of Christ.
As Christ continues to knock on the believers hearts, so to he disciplines those He loves. The purpose is for them to be Christ like and for them to trust in Him alone. As believers repent from sin, and turn back to God through Christ, the fellowship is restored.
It is by this fellowship continually that Christians are being glorified. There is a Corporate Personality here where believers will become like Christ.

The need for Enlightenment

A.W. Pink says something to this effect in his book on the Holy Spirit:

'Naturally the disposition of Man is to hate His Creator and His Creator's holiness and righteousness.'

On the false notion of Becoming an Elect child of God.

My professor once said that when he comes to faith in Christ that it is at that moment in time that he has become God's elect. Partly after hearing my professor and reading this excerpt from Louis Berkhof from what it sounds like the view is saying is: That God has elected the Church for salvation and anyone who does not fall into the salvivic camp in the Church by faith in Christ is a reprobate and anyone who does so is an elect. Now I think the problem here if this is actually what the view is saying is that it is misusing the terms: Election and Reprobation for the Church and the Lost.

"Camfield therefore says in his Essay in Barthian Theology, entitled Revelation and the Holy Spirit: 'It needs to be emphasized that predestination does not mean the selection of a number of people for salvation and the rest for damnation according to the determination of an unknown and unknowable will. That idea does not belong to predestination proper.' Predestination brings man into crisis in the moment of revelation and decision. It condemns him in the relation in which he stands to God by nature, as sinner, and in that relation rejects him, but it chooses him in the relation to which he is called in Christ, and for which he was destined in creation. If man responds to God's revelation by faith, he is what God intended him to be, an elect; but if he does not respond, he remains a reprobate. But since man is always in crisis, unconditional pardon and complete rejection continue to apply to every one simultaneously. Esau may become Jacob, but Jacob may also become once more Esau. Says McConnachie: 'For Barth, and as he believes, for St. Paul, the individual is not the object of election or reprobation, but rather the arena of election or reprobation. The two decisions meet within the same individual, but in such a way that, seen from the human side, man is always reprobate, but seen from the divine side, he is always elect....The ground of election is faith. The ground of reprobation is want of faith. But who is he who believes? And who is he who disbelieves? Faitand unbelief are grounded in God. We stand at the gates of mystery.'"

Pg. 111

Up From The Grave He Arose!

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." - 1 Peter 3:18-22

This is a really good and often confused paragraph: But, one of the major significance for Christ's suffering on the cross and dying and rising again three days later is what it entails: Victory. The Atonement is not an event which shows the demonic power winning over God. No. The Atonement is rather the main purpose for all of Creation itself. It ultimately displays the Soveriegnty of God over all powers. Ultimately the atonement was the victory over evil!

Baptism is a response to what the Spirit has done in one (Titus 3); i.e. New Birth, creating faith in one.

But the gospel does not just stop at the resurrection. It is also connected with the fact that Jesus Christ also ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of God the Father above all other things. All things are subjected to Him. In Him are the keys to Life, no one can be justified apart from Him and apart from being counted as righteous with his righteousness alone. Further, Christ also knows who is His and who is not His and so He sits at the right hand of God the Father interceding on behalf of the saints.