GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 3:31
Click to listen to this devotion.
31 For we are not rejected by the Lord forever.
Those who carried the cross of the Jewish exiles looked forward to the second cross of Christ, even though they did not know it would be a cross. They had the promise of God to Eve, that the enmity between Satan and the descendant of the woman would culminate in a deadly struggle; that the power of Satan, including the power of death and the grave, would be destroyed by the incarnate Son of God (“he will crush you head”) even though it would be done through his own death (“you will strike his heel,” Genesis 3:15). They had the promise of Moses that the God-man would come from their own people, “from among your own brothers” (Deuteronomy 18:15). And Isaiah had described his suffering in terrible detail. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). And without knowing it, they knew some of his agony to the very letter, the very syllable: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). Those who in Babylon trusted in his coming would be among the ancestors of those who stood there at the cross to see and hear: The woman from Magdala, the woman whose sons were James and John, and the woman who had given birth to him in Bethlehem.
Those of us who carry our crosses, the third cross, know these things, too, except that we are privileged to look back in time and to know his name. We breathe these words, “We are not rejected by the Lord forever,” because on his second cross, the cross of our shame and his victory, he himself said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
The terrible punishment of hell is inescapable for those who are there. “Once the punishment has dragged them into hell, mercy no longer leads back to pardon” (Ambrosius Ansbertus). About the eternity of hell, we can acknowledge these things:
1, Since sin is committed against God, who is the author of the infinite good, then sin deserves a punishment that is also infinite. Therefor hell is eternal. “Surely God will bring you down into everlasting ruin. He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent. He will uproot you from the land of the living” (Psalm 52:5). It will be “everlasting scorn and everlasting shame that will not be forgotten” (Jeremiah 32:40). Christ suffered the infinite punishment of hell since he suffered not only according to his human nature (for which the punishment was only hours on the cross) but also according to his divine nature, and God is infinite.
2, Through sin man loses an eternal good, therefore by sin he also falls into eternal evil. The damned have rejected eternal sweetness and are justly cast into eternal bitterness: “You turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground” (Amos 5:7). Christ suffered the bitterness of hell in our place.
3, Man has always sinned in an eternal way. If it were not for death, he would continue to sin and sin, for “every inclination of his heart is only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Therefore it is just that he is always punished in an eternal way by God. Christ took this eternal punishment on himself as he suffered hell on the cross.
4, The will of the dying man is confirmed in that state in which he dies, just as the will of the devil, who fell away from God, was immediately confirmed in that wickedness. So when someone dies in a state of final impenitence, his will is made steadfast in that evil, and because of it he is made evil forever in hell. Christ suffered to free all mankind from sin, but there are some who reject him and who are therefore damned for all eternity. Those who die in faith suffer nothing at all, for they, that is we, are covered by the blood of Christ.
5, The fuel for the fire of hell (which is the stain of sin) is eternal, therefore the punishment is eternal. The debts of sin are eternal because the damned cannot pay them. But Christ paid for our sins, and by faith that payment is ascribed to our account. God credits our faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
6, In the case of the damned, there will be no true and sincere repentance. Therefore forgiveness will not take place in their case. Paulinus of Nola wrote: “No hope remains for them because they have no faith.” Christ came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), and there is the sweetness of the gospel for all who put their trust in him.
7, The error of the damned is that in this lifetime they preferred a finite pleasure over an infinite good. Jesus warned: “If your eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than to be thrown with two eyes into hell, ‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:47-48). But he does not ask us to mutilate our bodies for our good, but to mutilate our sinful thoughts, our wicked intentions, our damnable idolatry. Put those things to death in the name of Christ our Lord and receive eternal life.
8, The joys of the blessed will be eternal, therefore the punishments of the damned should also be eternal. “His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 118:1), but for the wicked, “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). As one of the apocryphal books preaches against purgatory: “Just as his mercy toward the godly is infinite and eternal, so also his wrath against the ungodly is infinite and eternal” (Sirach 5:6).
9, Sin separates from eternal life. Therefore sin also leads to eternal death. Christ suffered this separation in our place when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
10, Not even among men is the quality and severity of a crime appraised on the basis of the period of time in which it was committed. The ancient Tullius said that there are eight types of punishments in the law: damages, imprisonment, scourging, retaliation, disgrace, exile, death, and slavery. Augustine asks: “Which one of these may be compressed into a short time in relation to the quickness of any crime so that it is punished for as much time [as it took him to commit the crime]?” Sin is punished in a manner of speaking in all of these ways, but eternally. Christ suffered all of these things on our behalf. “He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).
As we heft our earthly crosses and follow after him who suffered in our place, we delight in this: The highest happiness, which is eternal life in heaven, enjoyed by the blessed angels and believing men and women in heaven, is the exact opposite of the extreme wretchedness of the damned. You have this gift of eternal life, joy, happiness, and blessing through Jesus.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online. https://splnewulm.org/invisible-church/
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 3:31 Not rejected forever