IN spite of all that Jesus has said concerning the Jewish leaders and the Jews as a whole, the heart of Jesus still yearns in love over them, and only desires that they may be saved from the wrath to come. Here is the lament of Jesus over Jerusalem which symbolized the state of the whole Jewish nation.

It seems incomprehensible to us that God can, on the one hand pronounce judgement and the sentence of eternal punishment for sin, and on the other yearn for the repentance of sinners and reveal a deep love for them. We are unable to hold such opposites together at one time. Here is a revelation of the omnipotence of God. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but at the same time his holiness and justice demands that sin is punished, and the sinner condemned. What is not appreciated truly is that God has acted on his yearning love for sinners and the pain he suffers when they have to suffer death in hell, and this action was and is one of supreme love. There is no love to compare to the love of God in giving his only begotten Son to perish in the place of those who are deservedly perishing for their sins. What love is this for God to bear the sin of those who have sinned against him, and bear it that the sinner may go free. Jesus here is expressing that he had come to die for them and so make their forgiveness possible, but they could not see it.

What poignant yearning is expressed in these verses. The heart of Jesus is full of pain over Jerusalem. He came to gather them into the love of God by saving them from their sins, but they would have none of him. How Jesus longs to save sinners. How he yearns that we all may be saved. How awful is human sin that it wants nothing to do with such love, and turns away from it.

The fact is that eternal punishment is real. There is a hell waiting for all who will not repent of their sin and turn to God. God cannot overlook sin. He would not be holy or just to overlook sin, nor would sinners be happy in heaven if he did. The horror of endless torment in hell is awful to contemplate, and it seems too terrible to believe God could sentence people to everlasting pain. Because of this we either deny the reality of hell, and suggest that a God of love could never behave in this way. If we don't react in this way, people refuse to believe in God who is like this. But this is one of the devil's greatest victories in his deception of the human heart.

The fact is that God, in the end, sentences no one to hell. The fact is we sentence ourselves to hell. God has provided a totally effective salvation from hell. At the greatest of cost God has made it possible for everybody to escape from hell, and enter the happiness and joy of his eternal kingdom. So complete is this provision of salvation that no one can claim that it was too hard to receive, or what is left for us to do to win eternal life robbed us of eternal blessing, for we are left absolutely nothing to do. The fact is that the gift of God in Jesus Christ is a total salvation from sin. Christ has paid the full price of sin, and he simply calls us to acknowledge our need of his saving by repentance, and receive the gift of salvation. So complete is Christ's work that it not only encompasses the forgiveness of all our iniquities, but includes the creation of new life within us, which abides unto eternal life, and fits us perfectly to enjoy that heavenly glory.

Hell is real, but so is free forgiveness and the gift of eternal life just as real. If we end up in hell it is not because God has condemned us in his justice, but that we have refused his gift of love freely offered to all who come empty handed to receive it. If we blame God then this is the sin that condemns us, the sin of rejection of his love gift of Jesus as our Saviour.

This is what was visited upon the Jews, and they lost for ever their status as the people of God. Jesus makes this plain in the closing verse. The Jews were offered their Messiah. He was plain for all to receive. Now because of their rejection they will never again to see Jesus their Saviour unless they are willing to come as individuals and confess him as the Blessed One who comes in the name of the Lord. Jews have lost their special status, but if still as individuals they humble themselves to be like all other human beings, and bow down to Jesus as the Blessed One of God, they will see him as Saviour, and hell will then not be their end.