The greatest mystery is not that some will be sentenced to hell, but that any are saved into heaven. God would be just to condemn all sinners and that is what we all are. The saints, however, will be saved. Notice what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-7:
“which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,”
These sinners who are saved have become “saints,” as the Apostle designates them in verse ten. The word means “set apart,” and suggests that those who are saved are different from others. But, “saints” does not mean a special class of Christian, as some false teaching, especially Romanism states. The New Testament is clear that all the saved are saints. We are sinners set apart from other sinners. God has set us apart in election—calling us in sovereign grace unto Himself. We are set apart from the world and unto the Lord.
The issue is, “How can a just God justify unjust sinners without compromising His justice? How can those deserving wrath be delivered from wrath and God maintain His righteousness? How can those fit for hell be fitted for heaven without God sullying His holiness?”
There is only one answer. God has poured out His righteous judgment that we deserve on His Son, Who freely took upon Himself that condemnation I deserve, “to demonstrate...His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” As John Newton penned, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!”
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