I used to keep a fish tank. It required some work but I really enjoyed my fish.Imagine that you had a big complicated saltwater fish tank. You designed it to be a perfectly balanced ecosystem: live plants to make oxygen, snails and catfish to clean out algae, and a mix of beautiful, compatible exotic fish. And you enjoyed your fish. You cared for them, worried about them, even loved them.
But, over time, things got out of balance. Unwanted species of algae, parasites, and bacteria moved in. You woke up one morning and your aquarium was an algae choked, fetid mess. You couldn’t see your fish for the scum. In fact they were struggling to stay alive. They had even begun to eat one another.
At this point you have two options:
Flush the fish down the toilet, dump the aquarium in the backyard, and take up stamp collecting.
Stick your hand down into the fetid, septic mess and clean the aquarium.
Option 1 is certainly the easy choice.
Option 2 is no fun. It even involves some personal risk. I know a guy who got a horrible infection cleaning his aquarium……almost lost a hand.
But, he saved his fish.
This is much like the quandary that confronted God toward the end of the old testament. Flush his creation, including us, down the toilet or clean up the mess…….at a significant personal cost.
God chose to clean up the mess…….our mess.
He stuck his hand into the fish tank. This is clearly not the face of God that dominates the old testament. This is not the God that Dawkins describes in “The God Delusion”:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
I have often marvelled that Dawkins would unleash such a stream of invective at an entity that he doesn’t even believe exists…….a discussion, perhaps, for another day.
Jesus, in the New Testament. is a completely different face of God……but, make no mistake, he is the same God.
So, why the big change…….what was God’s motivation?
Justice
Persistence
Mercy
Love
Obviously, not Justice. Possibly persistence At least in part mercy.
But, behind that mercy, the driving force was, is, and always will be love. Love is the motivating force behind every act of God, from creation, to incarnation, to ministry, to resurrection, to pentecost, to paradise, and yes…….to hell. Jesus is that face of God incarnate.
Jesus is the love of God incarnate.
God’s love is a parental love. This is the central feature of God’s character. He wants…….demands…..relationship with us so that we can participate in his love. If we reject that relationship……..we reject his love.
And that is a good working definition………of hell.
In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, as told by Jesus, Abraham talks to a soul who is burning in hell. The tenor of the conversation is a sadness for the suffering of the soul in the flames.
I believe that God wakes up every day hoping that we will do better.
That hope…..is the reason why God hasn’t dumped the aquarium.
I believe that God is sad for the souls in hell…….sad that souls whom he loves are suffering. I don’t believe that God enjoys the reality of hell.
And the love behind that sadness is what drove God to stick his hand into a fetid aquarium two centuries ago.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16, ESV