You might have heard the saying, "It was hell on earth." Obviously, this is an exaggeration. Nobody has ever experienced the true hell on earth. Everyone, however, experiences some of hell on the earth though, and you've most likely contributed to it.
The Bible doesn't tell us what temperature the fire will be, nor of all that will happen in hell. Hell is only mentioned 20 times in the whole Bible, even counting the 3 references to 'outer darkness.' The most detailed description we have of what will happen in hell is that there will be 'weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Oh, how often we have brought weeping and gnashing of teeth to earth by our sins! We have wept over trivial matters, upset at the person who made our way inconvenient. Or maybe we have even lashed out in anger at someone and gnashed our teeth. Just like a smile is, these are outward evidences of what lies inside of us. We may not always (or even often) weep or gnash our teeth in anger, but nevertheless, we are very often angry.
And what makes us angry?
My guess is ingratitude.
Ingratitude. It takes high expectations and a high view of one's self to be ungrateful for what the Lord has given us - life on earth, essential and above essential materials, relationships, eternal life, Himself! In our selfishness we think we deserve everything that happens to us. When we wake up we think we deserve the day ahead. When we walk, we think we deserve the body we walk in. When we sit, we think we deserve all around us. All probably without even thinking about it. This is why, when anything we 'own' is broken, we get upset. When our relationships get shaken, we are annoyed. When life doesn't go the way we think we deserve, we get offended.
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.
We skim over this verse and say, 'yes, Lord, all belongs to you.' But we go back to living our lives as if we deserved them. Do we really know what ALL means?
All = Everything.
All = The entire amount.
All = In entirety.
All = The total quantity.
All = Nothing left out.
Nothing left out. Nothing left out. Not our finances, food, or thoughts. Not who we make friends with or what we want to do with our lives. Not even what happens to us after we die. None of these are left out - ALL belongs to God.
I had to wonder what a person would be like if he surrendered ALL to the Lord. Why, nothing could touch him! Nothing could make him angry! If his two year old brother smashed his soccer trophy, (real life scenario here! :D) he would certainly not throw his brother out the window! No, you don't get angry over broken materials that aren't yours. If his father and mother forsook him, so what? The Lord never will, and he knows he doesn't deserve his parents' love. Surrender would be like a shield covering him from head to toe and all the temptations to raise anything up above Christ would bounce off of him.
To tie it all together, when we raise anything above Christ - ourselves, things we think we deserve, our future, our thoughts, our relationships, anything, - it becomes an idol, and if those idols are touched, we get angry and ungrateful. While this is not hell on earth literally, anger produces the same 'symptoms' experienced in hell.
If only we would learn to surrender the totality!
And this goes right back to the gospel. Because all have sinned, we are all condemned according to God's law to eternity in hell, and this is just. But Christ sits at the right hand of God, offering us a priceless gift - eternal life to all who will humbly repent of their vile sins and believe fully that He died and rose from the grave on the third day of His death. This is a priceless gift, and yet another that we who are saved often think we deserve. I mean, we repented + believed, so we get heaven, right?
YES, praise the Lord!
But we still don't deserve it! We should come humbly to the throne saying "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things and by Your will they exist and were created. And I will serve you and give you glory, honor and power to my last breath because you are far above worthy to receive it. I don't serve You as a way to get to heaven... I serve You because You are worthy of my service and all that You have given me. And if heaven isn't an option, and I go to hell when I die, I'll serve you anyway because You are worthy."
So even heaven is another gift of mercy to us that we don't deserve!