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Not Wanting to Go to Hell is not Enough
Not wanting to go to hell is not enough. I’ll confess, my main reason for being baptized was negative. I’ve grown beyond that by God’s grace. I loved and appreciated Jesus’s sacrifice and atonement back then, so my baptism wasn’t only negative. But I’ve also learned not wanting to go to hell is not enough.
There is a vast difference between submission out of love versus bowing out of opposition. Defeated kings and their armies don’t surrender as their preferred choice. While every saved person has given in, given up, and bowed down in submission to God as a former enemy, we do so calling God our Abba, our Father. Not all who submit do so as a former combatant, emphasis on former. Some submit in defeat looking to rise up in rebellion against their enemy once again. This led Pharaoh’s legion of soldiers into their own baptism of death in the Red Sea.
That submission is not enough, and neither is seeking mercy, is most profoundly seen in Mark 5. The demons known as Legion did bow in defeat, asking permission to be cast into the swine herd. But their reaction to Jesus’s sovereignty was not love even though they sought mercy.
• “And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you before God, don’t torment me!” … And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region. … The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.” So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.” (CSB’17 Mark 5:7,10,12-13)
Can we see how important wanting a relationship based on mercy because of love is? Mercy to make our lives easier is not enough. That is what the demons wanted. To paraphrase James 2:19, “even the demons don’t want to go to hell, and they shudder”.
Don’t just be a defeated enemy. Submit in defeat, thankful that your pride, lusts, neglect of the needy, mistreatment of those you didn’t like, and even your empty religion, have been destroyed. Legion shows submission and wanting mercy by not going to hell is not enough. We all should want more!
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