Archive for April 1, 2011


Apr 1

Sermon Follow-up: “‘Now No Condemnation’ – What Condemnation?”

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Sermon Follow-Up

Update: Michael Horton’s excellent nine part response to Love Wins is now available in one spot on the web and in pdf form.

This Wednesday night, Ryan preached a sermon from Romans 8:1, where Paul writes,”There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The sermon’s title was, “‘Now No Condemnation’ – What Condemnation?

That’s an important question. What precisely are we rescued from through our union with Jesus Christ? What is so great about “no condemnation,” after all? To appreciate all that we have in Christ, we must understand all that Christ’s work rescued us from. To clarify what Paul means by “condemnation,” Ryan made the following points from Scripture:

  • Condemnation is Hell
  • Hell is Abandonment
  • Hell is Destruction
  • Hell is Conscious Torment
  • Hell is Forever
  • Hell is Punishment
  • Hell is Just
  • Hell is Wrath

This is a sober subject, but we can praise God that His grace is greater than all of our sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! In His life, Christ met God’s righteous demands for us. In His death, Christ absorbed God’s wrath for us. Death has no sting. Hell has no victory.

The question of the nature of hell is of particular relevance given the national attention received by a new book by Grand Rapids area pastor, Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

While Bell does not adopt the label of “universalist,” he can only do so by redefining what he means by that. Bell asserts that every human person, in the end, will be won over by the love of God. In other words, everyone goes to heaven. Some will turn to him before death, and some after death. God wants all to be saved so, in the end, God gets what he wants.

That would sound like good news, but it does damage to Scripture. In addition to mishandling the Bible’s specific teaching on the subject of hell, Bell’s proposal undermines the constellation of Scripture’s teaching concerning nature of God and the nature of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Whenever we find the Bible mishandled we have a chance to apprehend God’s glorious grace in Jesus Christ more fully by returning to the Scriptures with greater interest for clarity and understanding. To clarify your understanding of the Bible’s teaching against this occasion of false teaching, we recommend the following four resources for your review:

In his interview with Bell on MSNBC, Martin Bashir made this timely interpretation of Bell’s work:

“You’re creating a Christian message that’s warm, kind, and popular for contemporary culture. . . . What you’ve done is you’re amending the gospel, the Christian message, so that it’s palatable to contemporary people who find, for example, the idea of hell and heaven very difficult to stomach. So here comes Rob Bell, he’s made a Christian gospel for you, and it’s perfectly palatable, it’s much easier to swallow. That’s what you’ve done, haven’t you?”

God is just. That is a good thing, even if it means bad news for us. But, thankfully, “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). And He did this “that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

May we be found believing, defending, and proclaiming this best of all good news while there is time.