THE KING’S BUSINESS
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does not end all, as the resurrection clearly proves. God meant what He said to Adam that in the very “day” of his sin he should “die.” Further we know that Christ’s death was not His annihilation, for He rose not merely as God but as man. Then too if death means cessation of existence, it is clear that the second death is absolutely impossible. NO ESCAPE. III. Everlasting Punishment. This view is certainly closest to the obvious, fair and full exegesis of Scripture and the following considerations are strongly confirmatory of it. (1) It connects sin with its pen alty, showing that the doom of the sinner is self-chosen, a'nd that punish ment comes from within, not arbitra rily from without. (2) It supports the well-known truth of the fixity and persistence of character. Evil tends to become in- .veterate, and it is impossible to esti mate the effects of persistence in evil. Character tends more and more to permanence. (3) While Judgment is God’s strange work in which He has no pleasure (Isaiah 28:21; Matt. 25:41), everything we know goes to show that the principle of punishment is a fact in the universe and is not exhausted in the idea of reformation. Even hu man justice demands righteous retri bution quite apart from reformation. (4) The words of Christ and His- disciples clearly indicate a feeling of horror at the fate of the wicked. The direct statements are very terrible. Thus we read of the “wrath of God,” “the worm that dieth not,” and “where the fire is not quenched.” The wicked are said to be raised to “shame and everlasting contempt,” and to suffer the “vengeance of an eternal fire.” These and similar statements are never mitigated, still less reversed or explained away.
(5) The power of the will shows that anyone can resist God’s grace and continue in sin in spite of every- thang God may do. (6) Modern science with its em phasis on law tends to support the principle of permanent punishment. For these reasons the view that Scripture teaches everlasting punish ment is certainly truer to all that we know than either of the other views. DUE TO WILFUL SIN. But it is sometimes said that finite sin should not have infinite punish ment, and that it is impossible for wrong-doing committed during our short earthly life to have such conse quences as will last forever. The argument is at least precarious, be cause we know so little of what is in volved in the terms “finite” and “in finite.” But this at least may be said, that everything depends upon the person against whom sin is commit ted, for guilt is proportioned to the position of that person. Thus, a man might do wrong against his fellow- man, and his sin or crime would not be so black as it would be if the wrong had been committed against his parents. Rising higher still, it is well-known that wrong done against an earthly monarch is regarded by law as still more serious. But what are we to say about wrong done against Christ, the Son of God ? The real sin of man is the rejection of the Lord Jesus as the Divine Redeemer, and the crowning sin is the refusal to accept Him in whom Divine grace is proclaimed (John 3:18). It is be cause the provision of redemption in Christ is final that this refusal is so profoundly serious. If a man reaches Heaven it will not be because of any thing he has done, but simply because he is in Christ, and those who reach hell will not be there because of any thing in general that they have done, but specifically because of their re-
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