Our return flight from Kenya left us with an 18-hour layover in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Unwilling to sit in the Schiphol Airport and then another 11 hours on the plane back to Oregon, we ventured into the city.
We boarded the crowded train into the heart of old Amsterdam. We transferred to another train and easily found a group of open seats for the three of us in a sectioned off area. The train started up and as I looked around noticed a sign that we were in the first class car. I imagined being caught by the transit police for riding first class with general class tickets.
I told my wife our problem and that we needed to move to the standing room only second class car at the next stop. A man beside us said, “Who cares? Just say that you’re Americans and didn’t know.” But we did know.
We all want the bad guy to be punished. It’s what he deserves. Evil is evil, whatever the measure; but that also means that my evil is just as bad as the evil of the guy sitting next to me. If he gets punished, I must be punished also.
Hell is the eternal place where God will forever punish each one who has done anything evil.
Hell isn’t avoided by being less evil than someone else; it’s avoided because Someone else took the guilt of your evil and was punished in your place. That Someone was Jesus when He died on the cross.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
Where Living Begins 