On thinking on this topic this scripture passage came to mind today:
Romans 9:21-24 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (ESV)
Contrasts are everywhere. When I see someone who is very sick I am more thankful of my health. When I see someone living in squalor I am grateful for my home with all of it's conveniences. The fact of the one highlights the blessing of the other. The fact that there are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (which we all are prior to conversion) accentuates the blessedness of being saved from it. If there wasn't the one (hell), there is no need for the other (salvation).
Prior to being saved I had asked a pastor why God would even create a hell, a devil, and people who will be destined to go to hell. He was unable to answer this to my satisfaction. When God confronted me on my relationship to Him, my rebellion, the truth about me, the me I kept stashed away in the deepest darkest recesses of my being, that is when I recognized the truth of what the Bible was saying about my fallen condition. At that time,
Romans 9:21-24 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (ESV)
Contrasts are everywhere. When I see someone who is very sick I am more thankful of my health. When I see someone living in squalor I am grateful for my home with all of it's conveniences. The fact of the one highlights the blessing of the other. The fact that there are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (which we all are prior to conversion) accentuates the blessedness of being saved from it. If there wasn't the one (hell), there is no need for the other (salvation).
Prior to being saved I had asked a pastor why God would even create a hell, a devil, and people who will be destined to go to hell. He was unable to answer this to my satisfaction. When God confronted me on my relationship to Him, my rebellion, the truth about me, the me I kept stashed away in the deepest darkest recesses of my being, that is when I recognized the truth of what the Bible was saying about my fallen condition. At that time,
