He loves the world enough to punish wrongdoing, and he loves people enough to take the punishment himself. It seems to me as if this is a truly loving God. He does it by himself taking our place in his death taking our punishment and himself experiencing hell so that we don’t have to. He doesn’t do this by leaving things unpunished, and so forgetting about justice. But he does say it to warn us - and to help us see how amazing it is that he offers us a way out.īecause this is the amazing news - that even though we all deserve punishment, even though we deserve to go to hell, Jesus - God himself - has provided a way out for us. But just because we don’t like something, doesn’t mean that it’s not true.Īnd it’s not something that Jesus says flippantly or lightly, without caring. Now as I say this, I know it’s not an easy thing to hear. None of us are perfect - so none of us should be in God’s perfect kingdom. And I haven’t treated God as I should - as my Maker and my Creator, and therefore the ruler in charge of my life.Īnd so I deserve punishment of my wrongdoing too. I’ve hurt people, I’ve ignored their needs, actually I’ve upset even some of the people I love the most. If I’m honest, I know I haven’t treated people as I should. None of us have treated God, or treated each other, in the perfect way we were intended to. ![]() Now I guess not many of us have a problem with the idea of famously bad people facing punishment - but this actually leaves us with a problem too, because none of us are perfect. It’s loving of a just God to hate and punish wrongdoing, so that only perfect things are in his perfect kingdom. We all have a kind of a sense of justice - so it’s good news that people who mistreat others are not allowed into God’s perfect kingdom, but are shut out-that is, they’re sent to hell. So God is loving - and yet he doesn’t love everything.Īnd because this loving God hates bad things, he does something about it. It wouldn’t be very loving of God to look at something like child abuse and say: “Well, I’m not really that bothered.” Actually, if he is loving, then he will hate these things. So he doesn’t love murder, or abuse, or selfishness, or pride. Just because God is loving, does not mean that he loves everything-there are some things that God doesn’t love, that in fact he hates. Well the Bible says that God is loving, and it also says that he will send some people to hell - so could it be that both things are true at the same time? I’d like to briefly give a couple of suggestions as to why this is the case. And so why can’t God just forgive everyone, and let anyone into heaven? Why does he insist in a seemingly cruel way that some people must go to hell? ![]() The Bible says that hell is a place without any of the good things that God gives us and which we enjoy today, such as friendship, love, joy - it’s an awful place. If God is so loving-and the Bible says that he is-then surely he wouldn’t send anyone to hell, would he? That’s a great question, a potentially explosive question.
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