When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
Acts 7:54

If you are familiar with the seventh chapter of Acts, you know why the religious leaders “gnashed” their teeth as Stephen. They had leveled false accusations at Stephen, that he answered with scripture. More specifically, he answered their accusations with a scriptural history of Israel rejecting God and His prophets at every turn throughout their history. He was pointing out that their persecution of Christ and His followers was nothing new.

Their reaction to Stephen’s words was first that they were cut to the heart. They knew that Stephen’s words were true. They weren’t about to confess their sin and repent, but they were “cut to the heart”! Don’t miss that conviction does not always result in repentance. It often results is further hardening of the heart.

The mixture of their conviction and hard-heartedness resulted in the gnashing of their teeth. The Bible speaks of people in Hell gnashing their teeth (Luke 13:28, Matthew 8:12). Most think this is due to sorrowful anguish as people realize that they didn’t receive Christ, should have received Christ, and are sorrowful, wishing they had received Christ.

That is not the case. The religious leaders in Acts 7:54 were gnashing their teeth not in sorrow, but in anger. This is obvious since they proceeded not to embrace Christ but to murder Stephen.

Likewise the gnashing of teeth in Hell is not due to sorrow, but to anger—and even hatred.

Read tomorrows blog post for more on gnashing of teeth in Hell…