If hell is real is God just?

It is a question that has often been asked by believers and nonbelievers alike. Actually, that question is not really even asked that often. More than likely the person who would ask it has already determined that if hell is real God truly is not just.

For instance, David Jenkins, the former Anglican Bishop of Durham, said that he considered the idea of eternal torment “pretty pathological” and said that “if there is such a god, he is a small, cultic deity who is so bad tempered that the sooner we forget him the better.” Indeed, says Jenkins, “there can be no hell for eternity – our God could not be so cruel.”[1]

Victor Hugo was even more blunt when he wrote, “Hell is an outrage on humanity. When you tell me that your deity made you in his image, I reply that he must have been very ugly.”[2]

While some Christians may resonate with these sentiments on an emotional level, we find within ourselves a conflicting emotion as well. This conflicting emotion arises from the facts that Jesus spoke frequently of the reality of hell, that the rest of the New Testament writers did so as well, and that Jesus’ embrace of the horrors of the crucifixion would certainly suggest that He came to save us from something terrible.

You can see these conflicting emotions as far back as the 4^th century where we find John Chrysostom saying this to his congregation:

I know, indeed, that there is nothing less pleasant to you than these words. But to me nothing is more pleasant…Let us, then, continually discuss these things. For to remember hell prevents our falling into hell.[3]

So how are we to answer this question? If hell is real is God just?

The question, “If hell is real is God just?” wrongly assumes that we understand justice and eternity enough to judge the matter rightly.

We should first acknowledge that there is a premise behind the question, “If hell is real is God just?” that is highly dubious to put it mildly. In point of fact, if we are honest we should all acknowledge that we do not understand justice or eternity enough to answer this question in any definitive sense or even to comprehend the answer were we to be confronted with it.

The question assumes that we can see, know, understand, and then, ultimately, judge the mind and heart of God. But the authors of scripture rightly point out the folly of such a notion. For instance, in Isaiah 55 we read:

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Furthermore, in Job 38, after Job finally launches his complaint against what he sees as the possible injustice of God, God highlights the fundamental difference between Himself and human beings in His overwhelming.

¹ Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ² “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? ³ Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. ⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? ⁶ On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷ when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Then, in Job 40, the Lord moves to a denunciation of the very idea that He can be judged by man.

¹ And the Lord said to Job: ² “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” ³ Then Job answered the Lord and said: ⁴ “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. ⁵ I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” ⁶ Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ⁷ “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. ⁸ Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

Church, we should approach all questions concerning eternal matters with this chasm between our finite and limited perspectives and the eternal heart of God. Seen in this light, our objections to what the Lord reveals about Himself actually serve to reveal a basic trait about our own selves: arrogance.

Consider, for instance, this diatribe from the famed agnostic Robert Ingersoll.

If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. … I do not believe this doctrine; neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake, and the conscience of a hyena.[4]

What is lacking in Ingersoll’s strong language is any acknowledgement of the fact that he and all of the rest of us only see reality in a very limited and hazy way, “through a glass darkly” as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV). In truth, to be able to judge God in such a way would require that we ourselves are at least equal to God, which is a patently absurd notion.

Jesus taught that God is just and that hell is real.

When we ask the question, “If hell is real is God just,” we must acknowledge the verifiable fact that Jesus taught (a) that God is just and (b) that hell is real. Francis Chan notes:

Jesus uses the word gehenna (translated as “hell”) twelve times in the Gospels. He also uses images of fire and darkness in contexts where punishment after judgment is in view. A quick look at these statements shows that Jesus believed, like His Jewish contemporaries, that a horrific place of punishment awaits the wicked on judgment day.[5]

Many examples can be mustered. First, concerning the fact that God is just, Jesus told a parable in Luke 18 that teaches precisely this.

¹ And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³ And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The question is rhetorical: “Will not God give justice to his elect?” While the parable is partly about the need for persistence in prayer, it also clearly and creatively asserts the fundamental justice of the character of God.

Yet, Jesus also taught that hell exists. In Matthew 5:22, Jesus says, “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Shortly after saying this, He says in Matthew 5:29, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

Finally, in Matthew 10:28, Jesus warns His hearers, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

These are just a few examples, but they confirm a very basic and very important point: Jesus believed (a) that hell exists and (b) that God is just.

The reality of hell does not make God unjust if we are indeed guilty.

There is another assertion the Bible makes, and that is that all of humanity is guilty of rebellion against God, and that this rebellion is deserving of punishment. In Psalm 53, the psalmist writes:

² God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. ³ They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

“There is none who does good, not even one.” One wonders if much of the modern objection to the doctrine of hell walks hand-in-hand with a naively optimistic view of human nature, a view that does not see human nature as fallen and rebellious like the scriptures do. We are quick to excuse our rebellions, but Jesus clearly saw the wickedness of man as having consequences that go beyond the grave. We can see this, for instance, in His condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. Listen closely to His language.

²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

The words of Jesus assume the justice of hell on the basis of the wickedness of the scribes and Pharisees. In fact, He suggests that their escaping hell would be an injustice.

At this point many object that the eternality of hell is what renders it unjust. That is, we might grant a temporal hell for sins committed, but how can an eternal hell be just? This objection seems to rest on the assumption that those who are in hell are, in fact, repentant. But why should we think this? Russell Moore offers a helpful insight into this question.

The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. They do indeed, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, seek for an escape from punishment, but they are not new creations. They do not in hell love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Instead, in hell, one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace. And this nature is seen to be satanic (Jn. 8:44). The condemnation continues forever and ever, because the sin does too. Hell is the final “handing over” (Rom. 1) of the rebel to who he wants to be, and it’s awful.[6]

This is helpful, for if in hell “one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace” then that means the guilt of the person is eternally stoked thereby inviting more punishment.

In his very interesting debate with Ray Bradley on the question, “Can a loving God send people to hell?” William Lane Craig made the same point when he responded to the objection “that God is unjust because the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.” Craig countered:

But is the objection itself persuasive? I think not:

1) The objection equivocates between every sin which we commit and all the sins which we commit. We can agree that every individual sin which a person commits deserves only a finite punishment. But it doesn’t follow from this that all of a person’s sins taken together as a whole deserve only a finite punishment. If a person commits an infinite number of sins, then the sum total of all such sins deserves infinite punishment. Now, of course, nobody commits an infinite number of sins in the earthly life. But what about in the afterlife? Insofar as the inhabitants of hell continue to hate God and reject Him, they continue to sin and so accrue to themselves more guilt and more punishment. In a real sense, then, hell is self-perpetuating. In such a case, every sin has a finite punishment, but because sinning goes on forever, so does the punishment.

2) Why think that every sin does have only a finite punishment? We could agree that sins like theft, lying, adultery, and so forth, are only of finite consequence and so only deserve a finite punishment. But, in a sense, these sins are not what serves to separate someone from God. For Christ has died for those sins. The penalty for those sins has been paid. One has only to accept Christ as Savior to be completely free and clean of those sins. But the refusal to accept Christ and his sacrifice seems to be a sin of a different order altogether. For this sin decisively separates one from God and His salvation. To reject Christ is to reject God Himself. And this is a sin of infinite gravity and proportion and therefore deserves infinite punishment. We ought not, therefore, to think of hell primarily as punishment for the array of sins of finite consequence which we have committed, but as the just due for a sin of infinite consequence, namely the rejection of God Himself.

3) Finally, it’s possible that God would permit the damned to leave hell and go to heaven but that they freely refuse to do so. It is possible that persons in hell grow only more implacable in their hatred of God as time goes on. Rather than repent and ask God for forgiveness, they continue to curse Him and reject Him. God thus has no choice but to leave them where they are. In such a case, the door to hell is locked, as John Paul Sartre said, from the inside. The damned thus choose eternal separation from God. So, again, so as long as any of these scenarios is even possible, it invalidates the objection that God’s perfect justice is incompatible with everlasting separation from God.[7]

I am not sure that the possibility Craig outlines in his third point should be granted, but his point stands: we put ourselves in hell. Furthermore, we have no solid reason for assuming that the inhabitants of hell are repentant.

The guilt of mankind must be grasped or the doctrine of hell will indeed seem monstrous. Of course, the guilt and sinfulness of mankind is an observable reality. We see it in others and, most difficult of all, we see it likewise in ourselves. It can be a helpful exercise to speak of hell and justice less in theoretical terms than in personal terms. In other words, it might be helpful to ask, “Do I deserve hell?” instead of asking, “Do people deserve hell?” If we are honest with ourselves, we will indeed have to admit that there is much in us that is deserving of judgment.

The reality of hell does not make God unjust if Jesus laid down His life to save us from it and if Jesus has sent His Church into the world to proclaim the way out of it.

But all of these points miss the primary point: that Jesus has come, that Jesus has embraced the cruelties of the cross, that Jesus has come forth from the grave in resurrection power, that Jesus stands ready and willing to forgive us and show us grace, and that Jesus has entrusted the saving message of the gospel to the church for us to proclaim throughout the world precisely so that men and women need not go to hell. To speak of the pains of hell without speaking of the pains of the cross that secured our salvation from it is to tell only part of the story, and not the best part at that.

Consider how the New Testament speaks of the saving work of Christ in terms of rescue and ransom. In Matthew 20:28 Jesus says that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The same image is used by Paul in 1 Timothy 2.

⁵ For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

In other words, Jesus willingly chose to pay the ransom price to save us from the ravages of sin, death, and hell. And oh what a price He paid! He emptied Himself in the incarnation, lived among us, then submitted to the agonies and tortures of His scourging and crucifixion. Most devastating of all, He endured a separation from His Father on the cross and bore the full brunt of hell itself.

And why? Why did he do it? He did it to save all who would come to Him in repentance and faith! He did it so that none need be damned in hell! Paul speaks of the glories of Christ in Colossians 1:11-14 and uses powerful imagery for what Christ has accomplished for us.

¹¹ May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God in Christ delivered us from the domain of darkness! He transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son! This is the message of the gospel. The gospel proclaims that there is something greater than hell, namely, the love of God! The love of God is brighter than the agonies of hell are dark. The love of God is stronger than the flames of hell are hot. The love of God is a delivering love, a freeing love, a saving love.

And this gospel of love and deliverance has been given to the Church. It is ours to proclaim, and hell cannot abide it or withstand it! In Matthew 16, Jesus says something quite astounding in His response to Peter’s proclamation of who Christ is.

¹⁶ Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Did you see that? “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it!” There is a way out! There is no need to go there! Christ is the conqueror, the hero, the champion Who shatters the gates of hell for all who will come to Him.

That is why the Church must go and tell people. The greatest injustice is not the reality of hell but rather the fact that we will not go and tell people how to escape it! What a tragedy! What a crime against humanity a silent Church is. The great Charles Spurgeon powerfully appealed to his congregation in these terms:

If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.[8]

Amen and amen!

Do I like the doctrine of hell? No.

Do I believe the doctrine of hell? Yes.

Why? Because I have never found Jesus to be a liar. He always tells the truth. And He has told us that this hell exists. But He has done more. He has called us to go and proclaim freedom and salvation and forgiveness and joy!

Does the thought of somebody going to hell trouble you? Good! It should! Then go and tell them how to avoid it. Go and tell them of the Christ who conquers and saves!

Do you fear that you yourself are heading for hell? Then cry out to Christ and know that He is quick to forgive and save!

 

[1] “There Goes Hell & The Second Coming,” New Oxford Review, p.18. https://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0394-montgomery

[2] Quoted in Jones, Brian (2011-08-01). Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) (p. 21). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

[3] John Chrysostom, quoted in: The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; N.T. Vol. IX (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p.104-105.

[4] Jones, Brian, p. 37.

[5] Chan, Francis; Sprinkle, Preston (2011-07-01). Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We’ve Made Up (p. 74). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

[6] https://www.russellmoore.com/2011/03/21/why-is-hell-forever/

[7] https://www.reasonablefaith.org/can-a-loving-god-send-people-to-hell-the-craig-bradley-debate

[8] Spurgeon At His Best, compiled by Tom Carter, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991 reprinted edition, first published 1988), 67.