The Amazing Resurrection of the DeadSample

What will happen to the ungodly?

In the Bible, the word ‘fire’ is commonly used in the context of judgment (Deuteronomy 4:24, 36; Matthew18:9; Hebrews 12:29). The Day of the Lord is a Day of terrifying darkness, destruction and flames (Amos 5:18-20; Zechariah 1:14-18). As we shall see, this is certainly true of the end of the age (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). The earth, once destroyed by flood, will be consumed with fire (2 Peter 3:5-7, 10). The former was literal and so will be the latter. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).

There may also be a spiritual aspect to this. Augustine, the great fifth-century Apostolic Father and Christian scholar, once wrote: ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

What did he mean by that? Simply that although we all have desires and passions and longings, ultimately none of these, even though fulfilled, can ever be satisfied. There is a deeper, stronger, sense of yearning that can only be fulfilled by abiding in Christ.

In this present life, we constantly attempt to meet our sense of dissatisfaction by turning to material things. But no matter how hard or how often we try, we are still left dissatisfied. We hunger, we eat, but we are soon hungry again. We thirst, we drink, but we are soon thirsty again. We grow weary, we rest, but it is not long before we are weary again. We are lonely, we seek friendship, companionship, and love, but are soon, to use Augustine’s word, restless again.

In extreme cases, unfulfilled desire can be such a raging, fierce force, that people steal, abuse, attack, and even kill, to find ways to quench it; their appetites are like wild horses, unbridled. The Bible puts it plainly: the corruption in the world stems from human craving (2 Peter 1:4).

Our dilemma is that so often we try to satisfy this inescapable need with anything and everything else. What if all other potential sources of satisfaction were taken away—as on that Day, they will be—and we are left only with a deep, terrible, yearning, never-ending desire, desperate and almost driven to madness with raging, throbbing, seemingly unbearable passions?

Could this be another aspect of what the fires of hell are about? Not only searing flames but eternal restlessness? Where God is the only answer, but we are prevented from finding God. As the Bible puts it: ‘Everlasting destruction… shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might’ (2 Thessalonians 1:9, NIV).

In reality, being shut out from God’s presence is in itself the ultimate expression of his wrath: everything else is the result of this.

Jesus said that he was both the bread of life and the living water so that those who came to him would never be hungry or thirsty again (John 4:14; 6:35). In him all our fundamental needs are met, not just now, but for eternity.

Songwriter and poet Frances Bevan (1827-1909) put it like this:

Now none but Christ can satisfy, no other name for me!
There's love and life and lasting joy, Christ Jesus, found in thee.

What next?

Read (aloud), record, repeat, and recall John 6:35. Which word tells us that this promise applies to both this life and the next?