Hell is a topic that many people shy away from, and many people ask why would God send people to hell. If God is love, then why does such a place as hell exist? Isn’t it contradictory that a loving God would send people to eternal punishment?
1. God is perfect and His ways are not our ways
First, we need to understand that we are viewing this from our viewpoint, the ones who have done wrong. There is no one who can say that he has not done anything wrong in his lifetime. So anyone who speaks is speaking from the viewpoint of the guilty. Of course, from the viewpoint of the guilty, we might think we are not all that bad and don’t deserve punishment. But the God who judges is righteous.
The Bible says that God is perfect (Matthew 5:48, Hebrews 5:8-9) and that He judges righteously (Psalm 92:15).
God judges people according to what they have done:
“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.” (Revelation 20:11-12)
Someone might say, “What about those who don’t know God’s commandments, how can they be judged by them?”.
The Bible says: “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them. This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:14-16).
So even for those who don’t know the commandments, their conscience will be what will judge them. If a person has done something against his own conscience, then he is guilty of sin just like those who know the commandments are guilty if they disobey.
Furthermore, the Bible says, “he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality” (Colossians 3:25).
So God is righteous, and He judges by His commandments or our conscience, and by these everyone is condemned and deserves punishment for sins. And before this perfect God, everyone is guilty.
2. God is love, so He provides justice
Someone might ask, “If God is love, why not just let it go?”.
Yes, God is love but He is also a fair judge. Courts in this world judge offenders and punish them in order to bring justice for victims and discourage other people from committing crimes. Likewise, God will judge people and provide justice.
To those who suffered at the hands of other people, the Lord says, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay” (Hebrews 10:30). Think about crimes committed in genocides, such as murder and rape. Do you feel a righteous indignation against those who committed those crimes? Your desire for justice is also why there is need for punishment of crimes. If people somehow get away with their crimes during their life on earth, God will repay them when He judges them.
Imagine if no crime is punished, would we feel safe to live anywhere? If there were no laws or punishment, the world would turn into a chaotic, violent mess. In God’s love for us, He establishes laws and punishment for breaking them so that people might fear Him and learn to do good.
Since God is perfect and is also a righteous judge, He cannot let sins go unpunished.
3. God is love, so He provides a Substitute
But what if we did something bad and regret it? Do our sins and punishments overtake us? Do we get a second chance?
Because God is love, He shows love to us by providing us a way out of His punishment. God the Father sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to die for us in order to take our punishment of sins on our behalf. Jesus died as our Substitute and He paid the price for our wrongdoings so that we can live. Anyone who believes in Jesus will not be judged by the books of the law. Anyone who believes in Jesus will be credited with His righteousness and will not undergo God’s punishment.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)
Read the article Is Jesus’s sacrifice enough to see how the Son of God paid for the sins of humanity by suffering punishment for us to the point that He was beyond recognition.
In this way, the justice of God is satisfied because Jesus was punished for our sins, and every sin received a just punishment. The love of God has been poured out for us through His redeeming sacrifice.
4. God is love, so He gave us His Spirit
Not only did God the Father give us His Son, but God also gives us His Holy Spirit so that He can help us live righteously. If we falter, God forgives us and cleanses us.
God cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), so He did not leave us as orphans in the world but sent us a Helper.
Jesus said before He was crucified, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26)
The Holy Spirit is given to us to be with us forever (John 14:16), and we can have a personal relationship with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 1:3, 2 Corinthians 13:14). To learn more about the Holy Spirit, see the article Holy Spirit.
Therefore, God the Father has given us His heart, His Son, and His Spirit, because He loves us.
5. God is love, so He gives grace in special circumstances
Someone might ask, “What about those who never heard about Jesus? How will they believe in Him?”.
And someone might also ask, “What about children who don’t know any better?”.
You will find that God is fair and forgiving in these special circumstances. Please see the articles What about those who never heard and Children and the Kingdom of God.
6. Jesus took the punishment but is it license to sin?
Someone might also ask, “So all anyone has to do is believe in Jesus. But is that fair? What about a murderer who decides to believe in Jesus and then kill someone?”.
The answer to this is that Jesus’s blood is not mocked. Faith in God is not about believing and lip service. Faith in God is believing in Him and learning to be faithful. God gives us His Holy Spirit to teach believers to do good and to be faithful to Him. So no one can take Jesus’s sacrifice as a license to sin. But all believers must keep learning to do good and keep learning to stay away from wickedness. Anyone who refuses to learn this will be condemned.
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27)
If we falter in doing good, God will forgive us, because “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). But we must not have an attitude of using Jesus’s sacrifice as a license to sin. For more information, see the article Faith vs Works.
7. Heaven and hell, a great dichotomy
Now that we know we can escape God’s punishment of sins through Jesus who paid our sin debt in full, let’s discuss a story Jesus told about a man who went to hell and a man who went to heaven.
Jesus said:
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'” (Luke 16:19-31)
Many people might think that life consists of shades of grey. But God wants to show the difference between good and evil. He wants to show the difference between living righteously versus the path that leads to destruction.
Hell is a great contrast from heaven and it is a choice made by man to go there.
7.1 Hell is a choice
Notice from the passage above that the rich man ignored God all his life. He did not listen to God’s word spoken through Moses and the Prophets, and he did not show kindness to his fellow man Lazarus by giving him the things he needed. The rich man had a lifetime to change and to listen to God, but he did not want to.
“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts…” (Hebrews 3:15)
7.2 Heaven is a place of comfort
Lazarus received all the bad things on earth, which included abject poverty, loneliness, and pain from sores and sickness. He did not receive good things, not even crumbs from a rich man’s table. Even so, Lazarus did not curse God, but had faith in God. Since Abraham is called the father of faith (Galatians 3:7), Lazarus, having faith in God, was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom. And Lazarus is comforted in heaven, receiving the good things of God forever.
7.3 The path to hell begins with an attitude of the heart
Some people might say, “God is not obvious to me, so I will live the way I have been living.”
This is basically the argument that the rich man had in his mind all his life. He thought God’s word was not worth listening to, because he did not see an extraordinary miracle like someone rising from the dead to warn him of hell. So he tried to convince Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them.
But Abraham’s response was: if anyone is not willing to listen to God’s word, he won’t be convinced even if something miraculous and spectacular happens to him. The truth is there are many evidences of God, but if a person does not want to believe, he won’t be persuaded.
Some people simply want to live the way they want, without God and His ways.
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
And many people have ascribed to the saying, “Sins are not important. Live and let live.”
“…The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
7.4 Hell is devoid of good things
If a person wants to live without God, he will be given that. The punishment of hell is eternity without God and any of His goodness, because God is the source of every good. Life without God is actually death, because God is the giver of life (John 14:6). Life without God is pain, because God created pleasure (Psalm 16:11). Life without God is sorrow, because God is the foundation of joy (Psalm 43:4). Life without God is foolish, because God is Wisdom (Proverbs 8:12, 22-23). Life without God is darkness, because God is Light (1 John 1:5). Life without God is full of hatred, because God is Love (1 John 4:8).
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” (James 1:16-17)
A person cannot pick and choose to enjoy some of God’s goodness and reject God Himself. A person can either accept God and love Him, or reject God and every good God has created.
Be careful if anyone decides to reject God, because God will give that person what he wants. That is, an eternity without God and any of His benefits.
7.5 Hell is a place of punishment
As seen from the passage about the rich man and Lazarus, hell is a place of torment and agony because the rich man was being burned there.
It is also a place for repayment of sins and eternal destruction. The Bible says, “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9).
Hell is a place of darkness and sorrow: “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:11-12).
7.6 Hell is a place where people and fallen angels are made examples of
From the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we know that people in heaven and hell can see one another to some degree. The rich man could see Lazarus and Abraham, and Abraham and Lazarus could see the rich man. Part of the punishment of hell is that those under punishment would be able to see people in heaven. And those in heaven could see how the wicked are punished.
“And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” (Jude 1:6-7)
In God’s love for angels and humans, He is making examples out of those who hate God and His ways. By making examples of the fallen angels and fallen people, no one will learn to do evil in the future, when God establishes His kingdom with a new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:1-4).
8. Why would God send people to hell
So why would God send people to hell?
God sends people to hell to provide justice and to prevent more rebellion. People are punished for the bad deeds they do on earth. But actually, hell is a choice made by each person. Each person is given a lifetime. In that lifetime, does he give God any time at all? If he is not willing to spend a portion of his time on earth with God, he would not want to spend time with God for an eternity.
“Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him, and their time of punishment would be forever.” (Psalm 81:15)
God sends people to hell because they want to be apart from Him. So He gives them what they want. Being apart from God is also being apart from any good things that come from God.
But anyone can escape the sentence of hell, because God gave us Jesus who died for us so that we can be in heaven instead of hell. God gives us everything He has, including His heart, His Son, and His Spirit. And He will give us more in this life and in heaven.
9. God is unwilling to send anyone to hell
Furthermore, God does not want anyone to die and be sent to hell. His desire is for people to trust Him for salvation and turn from their evil ways.
“‘Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ declares the Lord God, ‘rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?'” (Ezekiel 18:23)
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
“‘For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Therefore, repent and live.'” (Ezekiel 18:32)
“For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” (Lamentations 3:33)
10. What will you do?
“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord,
‘Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
If you consent and obey,
You will eat the best of the land;
But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be devoured by the sword.’
Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 1:18-20)
“If you say, ‘See, we did not know this’,
Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
And will He not render to man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:12)
And it is not that God is asking us to do some impossible thing.
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
It is my hope that you find the God who loves you and died for you. To learn how to receive eternal life, see the article What is eternal life and the excellent way.
Read the gospel of Matthew in the Bible.