It isn’t just backwoods fire-and-brimstone preachers who talk about Hell, you know. Isaiah’s vision of the new heavens and the new earth includes the eternal torment of those who have sinned against God, saying that “their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched.” And of course in His own teaching, Jesus underlined the truth of this prophecy, quoting from the last verse of Isaiah three times in this short passage.

So, given that Hell is real, how can we avoid it? Of course we need to trust in Jesus as our Savior, letting Him take the punishment that all our sins deserve. But He also taught us to repent, to turn away from our sins and to turn to God. And today’s passage makes it quite clear that such repentance is not optional.

For our sin can easily cause others, especially young people, to stumble in their faith (verse 42). And this isn’t just done by teaching them the wrong things. We can cause others to reject the gospel if we preach the love of Jesus, but then refuse fellowship with Christians who don’t do things exactly the way we do (verses 38-40). After all, how many people have left the faith because of the hypocrisy they see among Christians?

And where it comes to living a consistent Christian life, Jesus says we must be willing to put all sin away from us, no matter how dear it may be, no matter how attached we are to it. Even if our sin is as close to us as the parts of our own body, we must turn away from it and from anything that is not in accordance with God’s will.

But doesn’t all this sound so extreme? I mean, how do we know that sin is such a big deal? How can we even be sure that Hell is real? Just look at the cross itself. Why would the very Son of God have had to die such a cruel death except to save us from something so serious, to keep us from enduring such eternal torment? No, the only way the cross makes sense is as an example of what all our sins deserve – the agony of eternal separation from God.

So today, let’s take sin and Hell as seriously as Jesus does. And let’s seek to follow Him more consistently for His sake, for others’ sake – and for our own sake as well.

Mark 9:38-50 (NASB)

38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to hinder him because he was not following us.”
39 But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who shall perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.
40 “For he who is not against us is for us.
41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.
42 “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
43 “And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,
44 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched .
45 “And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than having your two feet, to be cast into hell,
46 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched .
47 “And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell,
48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”