Hell for some would be Hell for all.

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On Sunday for a sermon on Romans 5.12-21, I preached on the church’s doctrine labeled apokatastasis, popularly known as universal salvation.

You can find the sermon here.

As Al Kimel writes, “Apokatastasis is but the gospel of Christ's absolute and unconditional love sung in an eschatological key.” Usually whenever I let slip that God in fact is gracious all the way down, I steel myself for the anticipated pushback. Paul says the law is written on our hearts and nowhere is this more true than our desire for God to deal with us according to grace but to others according to justice. Sunday surprised me, however. The proclamation of the allness of Christ’s obedience audibly freed hearers of more burdens than I dared guess that they were carrying.

Therefore, I think it’s worth pressing further into the possibility of an apokatastasis made available by the Son’s rectifying faithfulness and into the inanity of an everlasting torment given that God is the one this Son called Abba. Indeed hell’s eternity bears little logic when one remembers that just as the Son is not the Son without the Father, we are not ourselves without those whom we love and have loved.

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