“How can a loving God send people to Hell?"

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled Skeptic. During this series we are spending our time looking at the eight common questions that skeptics pose as a challenge to the Christian faith. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that we would address these eight common questions that skeptics pose to challenge Christianity in way that answers these questions and that equips us to have confidence and convictions about the nature and character of God and His activity in the world around us.

This week I would like for us to spend our time together addressing the sixth of these eight common questions that those who are skeptical ask as a challenge to God and the Christian faith. And that question is this: “How can a loving God send people to Hell?"

Usually, when I engage someone who has this skeptical question, the conversation goes something like this: “You Christians say that God is love, but then you say that if I don’t believe in Jesus I am going to Hell? How can God be a God of love and send people to place where they will experience torment for all eternity? Why can’t you just stick to the message of Jesus? After all Jesus accepted everybody. Jesus said, don’t judge and you won’t be judged. So why can’t you Christians be more like Jesus”.

And if we were having a conversation about this question, my answer to this question would be this. The reason why Hell is a part of the message of Christianity is due to the fact that the idea of standing before God to give an account of one’s life and be judged based on how one lived their life was a part of the message and teaching of Jesus. As a matter of fact, Jesus, who more than anyone reveals and explains the love of God to the world, spoke more about standing before God to give an account of one’s life and be judged based on how one lived their life more than any other person in the letters that make up the Bible. For example, notice Jesus words in Matthew 8:11-12:

"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; ¹² 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."

Just a few chapters later, we see Jesus say the following in Matthew 25:44-46:

"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' ⁴⁵ "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' ⁴⁶ "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

And then, here are Jesus words in another account of Jesus life in the Bible, called the gospel of Mark, found in Mark 9:43-48:

"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. ⁴⁵ "If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, ⁴⁶ where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. ⁴⁷ "If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, ⁴⁸ where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.

You see, when we read the message and teaching of Jesus, we see that Jesus made it unmistakably clear that every human being would be judged on how they lived their life and would be held accountable for how they lived their life. And part of that accountability would be the consequence of being separated from God for eternity in a place called Hell, where they would be punished for the wrongdoing and injustice that flowed from their rebellion against God.

But why do people object to Jesus clear teaching on the idea of being judged by how one lived their life? Why would people push back so hard on the idea of God judging people and sending them to Hell? In my experience in engaging people who have this question and objection, there seem to be several grounds for their objection.

First, many people are offended simply by the notion of judgment. Their objection, if aired in the courtyard coffeehouse, would sound something like this: Well Dave, why should people have to stand before God as their judge? Can’t God just accept everybody? After all, isn’t that what love requires?”

If you find yourself resonating with this question and objection, here would be my response:  The timeless reality is that God is not only love. God is also right, just, and good. And because God is right, just, and good, God must not only love, He must also hate. He must hate that which is evil and that which is contrary to what is right and just.

To say God has no right to exercise His right and just response to evil is to simultaneously say He has no love, for you cannot divorce those two ideas. Here is an illustration from my life to demonstrate this point:

If, in May of 1998, if you would have asked me if I could kill a man with my hands, I would be like, “Why would I ever want to kill a man with my bare hands?” Then, on May 16, 1998, we had our daughter Rachel. Now, after holding my newborn daughter in my arms, if you would have asked me the exact same question, my response would be “Yeah, I’d kill a man”. What happened? What gave birth to such a response in my heart? Love did, that I loved this little girl so much that I will choke the life out of you if you try to harm her.

You see, love and a right and just response to evil cannot be taken from one another. If you take one, you lose the other. If God is not a God of rightness and justice, then there is nothing He loves enough to incite anger, and that’s important. That means there is no love. You can’t make God a sky fairy God of love and try to take from him His right and just response to evil, wrongdoing, and injustice.

In addition, while we may object to the idea of some final judgment, it is the idea of a final judgment that gives dignity to our lives. God doesn’t judge dogs, or even cats, although they should be judged. Unlike any other earthly creature, God treats us as responsible moral agents, because we were created to be responsible. God’s judgment also reveals the reality that we have been created for a life of meaning and purpose in relationship with God and relationship with others.  How we treat God and others matter, because every human being has been created in the image of God.

Second, people object to Jesus clear teaching on the idea of being judged by how one lived their life because of the basis or standard that they are judged on. Usually, when I engage someone who has this skeptical question, the conversation goes something like this: “Why is it that if I don’t believe in Jesus I am going to Hell? What does Jesus have to do with it anyways?”

If you find yourself resonating with this question and objection, here would be my response:  The basis or standard that people face at the end of their lives is not about whether or not one believes in Jesus.  The basis or standard is whether or not a person rejected God and did things out of that rejection that hurt God and others.

You see, when we talk about what the Bible calls sin, sin is a selfish love that places ourselves above God and others and chooses to rebel and reject God and others. It is our selfishness and rebellion that leads us to do things that hurt God and others. And it is that selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God, because we really never wanted God to be first in our life. Instead we want to be first in our life.

C.S. Lewis put it this way: Sin is a human being saying to God throughout their life “Go away and leave me alone”. Hell is God’s answer “You may have what you wish”. Now it is not like people wake up in the morning and choose to go to Hell; they simply choose the road that leads them there as they refuse the rescue that is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Hell is the culmination of the effects of selfishness and rebellion and the confirmation of God’s opposition to it. Hell is the end result of human choice and the judgment of God. There can be no fairer verdict than that.

Here is something to consider: After all, if you did not want Jesus when you lived life here on earth, wouldn’t it be Hell to have to spend eternity with Jesus? That would be Hell, right? For example, Heaven is a place of constant praise and worship of God. But for those who do not want to be with God and who do not enjoy one hour of worship a week on earth, it would be hell to force them to do this forever in Heaven, wouldn’t it?

A similar objection surrounding what Jesus and the letters that make up the Bible have to say about the idea of being judged by how one lived their life because of the basis or standard that they are judged on sounds something like this: “What about the pygmy in Africa who never heard about the Bible or Jesus? How can God judge them and find them guilty?”

If you find yourself resonating with this question and objection, I want to let you know that you are raising a fair question or objection. And your question and objection is not a new question or objection. As a matter of fact, we see the Apostle Paul address this very objection in a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans.

Tomorrow we will jump into this section of the book of Romans...