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“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s sermon on this passage is titled, “Eternal Life or Eternal Death?”

We like to get what we are owed. If someone owes us money, we don’t need to set a reminder on our phone to ask them to pay us back. If we are in debt to someone else, we get charged interest. We are all about making sure wages are paid correctly.

When it comes to God, however, our attitude should be exactly the opposite because the only thing we have earned through a lifetime of sin is death (as Paul says in Romans 6:23).

Death is really separation/dissolution. When a river is cut off from its source, it dies. When a body is separated from vital nourishment for long enough, it dies. There are many kinds of death in this world: the death of a dream, the death of a relationship, the death of an organization, the death of a friend, the death of an enemy, your own physical death. All of these are different kinds of separations.

The ultimate separation then, the worst possible death there is, is eternal separation from God, the source of all life and joy and goodness (which is what hell is, along with eternal punishment).

But there is an alternative to this death, and it lies not in what we are owed, but in what we need: a gift from God. We need God to give life to us, even though we deserve death. In other words, even though our sin has removed us from communion with God, we need God to come after us and to offer us a chance at regaining that communion, of healing the separation that occurred.

Once you understand what death is, you can see that it is not physical death, the mere biological process that brings our earthly bodies to a halt, that we need to fear. That is a kind of death, but it isn’t the worst kind of death. The worst death is never knowing God. Once you have received the free gift offered to you through Jesus Christ, you know God and are truly alive. And you will always know God forever, long after your body has returned to dust.

 

Small Group Questions

  • The topic of hell is an emotional one. Discuss where you are at with it personally in your group. How does the idea of hell make you feel or respond?
  • Discuss the non-biblical alternative to hell mentioned in the sermon, Annihilationism and Universalism. Why do these understandings show a low view of eternal life?
  • How does the truth that eternal life is knowing God change the way we live each day? How does it change the way we view our own physical death?
  • Read and discuss chapter 17 of John’s Gospel to see how Jesus views eternal life, and our involvement in his relationship with the Father.