How can a loving God send someone to hell?

I believe today's question is near the top of everyone's thoughts about hell. We can easily picture a loving God as Someone that allows men and women into heaven, but we struggle with understanding how that same loving God can condemn men and women to an eternity of suffering in hell.

If we can't resolve this, then we are left with doubts about who God really is.

Listen to today's podcast to see how the Bible addresses this "dilemma."

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (Psalm 119:105)

Transcript

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Good morning everyone and welcome to 15 minutes with Fritz, where Scripture meets the sidewalk. We've been reviewing the book The One Hundred Most Asked Questions About Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife. We've completed our study about heaven and have moved on to the topic of hell. Now before we address some of the typical questions about hell, such as what is it like? Where is it located, and are there different levels of punishment? I want to jump directly into a question that I think is near the top of most people's minds. One that probably influenced the forty five percent of Americans who believe in heaven but don't believe in hell. Our question is how can a loving God send someone to hell? You see, we can easily picture a loving God as someone that allows men and women into heaven, but we struggle with understanding how that same loving God can condemn men and women to an eternity of suffering in hell. It's a dilemma that on the surface seems difficult to resolve, but if we can't resolve it, then we have a real problem on our hands because we are left with doubts about who God really is. To help us, I want to use a passage from the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. In the first chapter he discusses this very topic. Listen to what he wrote. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Like most passages in Paul's epistle, we could spend a lot of time and only scratch the surface of the depth of one of his greatest contributions to the New Testament. But for the purpose purposes of today's topic I want to focus on two things. First, God makes the truth plain to everyone. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. JB Phillips translated verse nineteen this way It is not that they do not know the truth about God, indeed He has made it quite plain to them. How God does this for anyone with access to the internet is pretty clear. There are literally hundreds of websites dedicated to proclaiming the gospel to anyone who will click on their links. But what about people in remote places on earth? How are they expected to know the truth? Isn't it more than a little unfair to expect them to know the truth when no one is there to explain it to them? And if they don't have access to God's word, how can they be expected to know what it says? King David addressed this very issue in Psalm nineteen. The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In other words, by simply looking up God speaks to everyone's heart about Himself and about the truth. There is no speech or language where the voice of the glory of God is not heard. Okay, so the truth is made accessible to everyone with no exceptions. But that begs the question what do people do with this knowledge? Well, some people choose to embrace that knowledge. They use it as a stepping stone to learn more about God. They approach God in prayer, they listen to what He says in the pages of Scripture, they willingly yield to His perfect will. And I pray that is what you are doing with the truth. But notice what others do. According to the apostle Paul, they are shown this truth, but they decide to ignore it. The ones who take this path are called wicked, and it is because of their wickedness that they actually suppress the truth rather than embrace it. They choose to bury it deep inside as if it really didn't exist. And that's our second point. Some people make the personal choice to suppress the truth. I developed this into an art form when I was in high school. Once when I didn't feel like studying, I actually talked my mom into letting me make a tape recording of me reading the chapter in my history book. I convinced her to let me play it while I was sleeping because I was convinced it would prepare me for an upcoming test, when the truth was I just didn't want to study. I could look my dad in the eye and tell him I wasn't going driving with my friend Cliff after he had his license suspended, knowing that that was exactly what I was going to do as soon as I walked out the door. You see, I could suppress the truth and still convince others that my version of reality was factual. Unfortunately I did the same thing with my spiritual knowledge. For decades I would look up and see the wonder of the stars in heaven and the beauty of nature all around me, but I would suppress it because I didn't want to acknowledge there was a God. I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted. For years I listened to sermons about Jesus and how much he loved me, but I suppressed that truth so I didn't have to yield to someone else's rules of behavior. You see, suppressing the truth doesn't mean the truth isn't there. It only means that I am making the conscious choice to ignore it. Everyone has been given enough truth to know about God and to surrender to him, it says in our book, but the wicked willfully refuse to accept the truth. That was me. So where does this leave us? How does this answer our question how can a loving God send someone to hell? I think I've successfully made the point that everyone knows the truth, but not everyone embraces the truth. In other words, everyone knows there is a God, but not everyone chooses to follow him. Those who choose to follow him do so out of their own free will, and those who do not follow him also do so by their own free will. But there are consequences to that choice. They choose to turn their backs on him and live in separation from him, and in one sense God is giving them what they ask for by sending them to hell. But another thing we need to do is define the word loving. Our culture tends to think of love as a completely non confrontational, tolerant approval of whatever the loved one wants to do. But the Bible speaks about love in a different way. Love, according to the Bible, focuses on promoting the well being of others. In the thirteenth chapter of Paul's letter to the Church at Corinth, he defines love this way. He tells us that love is patient, love is kind, love protects, love trusts, love hopes, and love perseveres. Love does not envy, it doesn't boast, it is not proud nor rude nor self seeking. And here's a good one it never keeps a record of wrongs. Love rejoices in the truth. And so implied in our question how can a loving God send someone to hell is the assumption that sending someone to hell is unloving on God's part. It is not. God's very nature is love, and he cannot do anything that is unloving. But if we say that God is unloving because he sends unbelievers to hell, we are putting ourselves above God, suggesting that we know more about love than he does, and that is not wise. So I think we've arrived at a crossroads where it is important to understand the difference between love and justice. We tend to compartmentalize these two things, thinking that love and justice operate in separate spheres. Machiavelli, a famous Italian statesman from the fifteenth century, argued that a ruler had to treat love and justice as separate tools of power. It is safer to be feared than loved, he wrote, because love can be fickle, which people break when it suits their self interests. Order, he believed, is maintained through the dread of punishment in other words, justice for disobedience. God, however, does not operate this way. God's love and God's justice coexist together. He is love, according to first John four sixteen, and that shapes his justice. At the same time, his justice affects his expressions of love. Justice requires adequate payment for crimes committed, while love requires the extension of grace to the criminal, and both of them come together at the cross. Listen to this quote from our book. The cross shows both justice and love. As Jesus died on the cross he bore the punishment of sin that justice demanded, and he extended the grace of forgiveness to sinners. Thus both the justice and love of God were at work. In other words, from God's perspective, love and justice are two sides of the same coin. Let me close with one final comment. As you know, we all deserve the punishment of hell, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Even the rich man didn't argue with Abraham or Lazarus about spending eternity in hell he knew he was being justly punished for his sins. But when you think about today's question, how can a loving God send someone to hell? Our book suggests that you consider its logical counterpart, which is how can a just God send someone to heaven? In other words, how can we ever satisfy God's righteous requirements and be allowed to enter the gates of heaven when his justice demands punishment for our sinfulness? The only possible answer is the cross. When we think of the cross, we see God's love and God's justice on display at the same time. If we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross, we reap the benefits of God's love while avoiding the punishment for our sins. But if we suppress that truth, if we decide to ignore the great sacrifice Jesus willingly made for us, then we reap the consequences of God's justice while avoiding the benefits of His love. You see, the choice is yours. And I pray that you choose Christ. Let's pray. Our Father who art in heaven, how wonderful you are, for only you can take the horror of the cross and turn it into an expression of your unfailing love. Only you can open the gates of heaven to sinners, and only you can lock the door on those in hell. We stand fully and completely at your mercy, completely undeserving of your marvelous grace, only because of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the end of our podcast, but it's not the end of our story. Thank you for listening.