I’ve been shopping around for insurance quotes this week. The X-Trail is due for renewal and every year I go through the grind of aggressively shopping for the best quote in the market. It takes time and effort but I reckon over the years I’ve saved quite a bit of money. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether or not I’ll need insurance for the next 12 months. But if I knew the future, if I knew whether or not an accident of theft was coming, such clarity would help me to insure accordingly.

The worst thing of all is not to prepare for the future. Managing future risks can be difficult which makes insurance so attractive. Am I prepared to forego car insurance with the hope that my car won’t be stolen or written off? Many people take the risk and regret it.

It’s much easier to prepare for the future when we know what lies ahead of us. Like tax time. We organise our financial affairs carefully because the tax man is watching. How much more should we organise our spiritual affairs because we know that God is watching. Indeed, at the end of life we will be audited by God himself.

God’s auditing principle is clearly stated in Rom 2:6, “God will repay each person according to what they have done”. For those who insure themselves with the Lord Jesus, and who live with Jesus as Lord, there is eternal life (Rom 2:7). But for those who remained hardened despots, there is literally hell to pay. Hell is the place of God’s eternal wrath and anger.

We need to shrug off the medieval views of hell and gain a biblical perspective. Hell is the just outcome of people’s bad choices. God made humanity to live under his loving rule. To reject his loving rule has serious consequences. In the language of Romans 2, hell is “trouble and distress” and a state of “perishing” (Rom 2:9, 12). Biblical images like darkness, fire and gnashing of teeth draw upon our feelings to convey the awfulness of this destiny.

The offensiveness of hell has led modern scholarship to re-invent eternal punishment. One such invention is “universalism” which says God’s love will finally conquer all and so all people will be saved. In the end hell will be an empty place. Such a view diminishes the gospel. Indeed, if God’s intention is to save all people then of what use is the cross? What is the cross saving people from if, in the end, all people inherit his kingdom? Those who preach God’s love to the exclusion of his anger are preaching “universalism”.

John Piper gets it exactly right. “It is very hard to give up on the gospel if you believe there is hell, that after this life, there is an endless suffering for those who did not believe in the gospel”. When we see the horror of hell with clarity, we look with even more love, and we worship with even more thankfulness to the One who endured that hell for us and saved us.