Charles Hodge,
The Bible not only teaches that all men are sinners, and that the evil is deeply seated in their hearts, but moreover that their sinfulness is very great. The clearest intimation which a lawgiver can give of his estimate of the evil of transgression is the penalty which he attaches to the violation of his laws. If he is wise and good, the penalty will be a true index of the real demerit of transgression; and in the case of God, who is infinitely wise and good, the punishment which he denounces against sin, must be an exact criterion of its ill-desert. If we are unable to see that sin really deserves what God has declared to be its proper punishment, it only shows that our judgment differs from his; and that it should thus differ is no matter of surprise. We cannot know all the reasons which indicate the righteousness of the divine threatenings. We can have no adequate conception of the greatness, goodness and wisdom of the Being against whom we sin; nor of the evil which sin is suited to produce; nor of the perfect excellence of the law which we transgress. That sin therefore appears to us a less evil than God declares it to be, is no evidence that it is really undeserving of his wrath and curse.
There is a still more operative cause of our low estimate of the evil of sin. The more depraved a man is, the less capable is he of estimating the heinousness of his transgressions. And the man who in one part of his career, looked upon certain crimes with abhorrence, comes at last to regard them with indifference. That we are sinners therefore, is a sufficient explanation of the fact, that we look upon sin in a very different light from that in which it is presented in the word of God. Nothing then can be more reasonable than that we should bow before the judgment of God, and acknowledge that sin really deserves the punishment which he has declared to be its due. That punishment is so awful, that nothing but a profound reverence for God, and some adequate conception of the evil of sin, can produce a sincere acquiescence in its justice. Yet nothing can be more certain than that this punishment is the proper measure of the ill-desert of sin.
The term commonly employed to designate this punishment is death; death not merely of the body, but of the soul; not merely temporal but eternal. It is a comprehensive term therefore to express all the evils in this world and the world to come, which are the penal consequences of sin. In this sense it is to be understood in the threatening made to our first parents; in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; () and when the prophet says, The soul that sinneth it shall die; () and when the Apostle says, The wages of sin is death. () The same general idea is expressed by the word curse, As many as are of the law are under the curse; for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. () and also by the word wrath, We were by nature the children of wrath, () The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. ()
These and similar passages teach that sinners are the objects of the divine displeasure, and that this displeasure will certainly be manifested. As God is infinitely good and the fountain of all blessedness, his displeasure must be the greatest of all evils. The Scriptures, however, in order to impress this truth more deeply upon our minds, employ the strongest terms human language affords, to set forth the dreadful import of God’s displeasure. Those who obey not the gospel, it is said, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. () Our Saviour says, The wicked shall be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. () At the last great day, he tells us, the judge shall say to those upon his left hand, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. () The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. () In the last day, all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation; () or as it is expressed in Daniel, () If to shame and everlasting contempt.
Whatever explanation may be given of the terms employed in these and many similar passages, there can be no doubt that they are intended to convey the idea of endless and hopeless misery. Whence this misery shall arise, or wherein it shall consist, are questions of minor importance. It is sufficient that the Scriptures teach that, the sufferings here spoken of, are in degree inconceivably great and in duration endless. The most fearful exhibition given of the future state of the impenitent, is that which presents them as reprobates, as abandoned to the unrestrained dominion of evil. The repressing influence of conscience, of a probationary state, of a regard to character, of good example, and above all of the Holy Spirit, will be withdrawn, and un-mingled malignity, impurity and violence constitute the character and condition of those who finally perish. The wicked are represented as constantly blaspheming God, while they gnaw their tongues with pain. () The God who pronounces this doom upon sinners, is he who said, As I live I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. () The most fearful of these passages fell from the lips of the Lamb of God, who came to die that we might not perish, but have eternal life. ()
— taken from: The Way of Life, Charles Hodge, 1841
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