What prompts such a title?  I was talking with my brother this morning. Richard is a pastor, and since we were in our 20’s he has not just been my brother in the flesh, but we are brothers in Christ as well.  But in our conversation this morning he made the observation that it is very hard today to speak on Hell from the pulpit. 

This got me to thinking: context concerning our understanding of God is, if not everything, it certainly is close to the top.  The problem with Scripture is that context requires much study. 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… Most of us know that verse by heart, but just this past Sunday pastor Tom stated that we hardly ever read the second verse following:

John 3:18  “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (NASB1995)

So what is the meaning of this judgment for those who do not believe?  And what exactly does Jesus mean by “believed” and by “judged already”?

Only the study of Scripture under the tutelage of the Comforter (the Teacher) will allow us to know what these mean.  He was sent by Jesus, to, when He comes to us individually, He has in mind the process of leading us into all truth. 

Jesus prayed a prayer on behalf of those who believed in Him in John 17.  

What He prayed shows that there is clearly a separation between those called believers and the world itself from which we are taken. This was so, even though He died for the whole world. His death was because of God’s love for this world.  In His prayer for believers He says:

John 17:9  “I ask on their (the believers) behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; (NASB1995)

A certain understanding must eventually be gleaned by study which will reveal that the world is still needing something more than Jesus having died; for in His death He is their potential savior.  But without Him as their Lord they cannot be separated from what is implied here in His prayer to be world without Him These then who are still in the world are also those already judged because they do not believe as Jesus had stated it in these verses. 

So what then is entailed in the concept of biblical belief in Christ?

Study leads one to an understanding that believing is more than knowing something intellectually.  Paul introduces us in Ephesians to the concept of our being “in Christ”. 

Just as the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; so is belief the beginning of our salvation experience.  So our belief just as the fear of God is intended to bring us to Christ and to the new birth in Him. Born of His Spirit we are then in Him, and He is our savior; as we are in His care. 

He also tells us to Abide in Him. That’s our part in the New Covenant now existing between us and God.  The beauty of being in Him is seen in the fruit that we will bear.  

Apart from Him, in the world we can do nothing.  Even our best efforts at fruit bearing end with nothing to show for it.  And thus the world without turning to Him is without hope. By rejecting God they have chosen to abide in a Godless eternity, where they will live out the sentence that has been given them at the judgment.  

Although I know that Hell is eternal, mortals are not eternal unless their own works in this life require God to so judge them. The Bible teaches this just attribute of God.  And it teaches that hell was created specifically for Satan and his angels, but it is there in hell that mortal men following the second resurrection have by their unbelief chosen to abide.  They are sentenced to be there until they live out their prescribed sentences.  Mortal men are given over to their own individual sentencing by God which eventually will end for most of them with their destruction in hell.